


Lie To Me

by penceyprat



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Asshole Frank Iero, Crossdressing, Crossdressing Gerard, Drama Student Gerard, F/F, F/M, High School, M/M, Non Binary Gerard (eventual), Punk Frank
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-02-23 21:37:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 28
Words: 118,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2556650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penceyprat/pseuds/penceyprat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard was late, and it was fucking raining. He'd missed the bus and it was fucking rain, and he was totally going to get dropped from the play if he was late again and he was so fucking screwed, but honestly Gerard wasn't all that keen on it when he'd heard the only main part he'd managed to get in this damn theatre group was of a fucking crossdresser. </p>
<p>For someone who was supposed to be in the closet, he was doing an awfully bad job of it.</p>
<p>Frank Iero was Gerard's favourite punk ass skater dickhead, that he was currently working on eternally denying to himself the crush he had on Frank, which totally didn't exist of course, but Frank was really cute, and Gerard was really stupid; stupid enough to think that he could totally pull off pretending to be a girl in order for heterosexual Frank Iero to fall for him.</p>
<p>Surely, this was truly the worst idea Gerard Way has ever had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gerard Way - Theatrical Extraordinaire And Drenched Rat

Gerard was late, and it was fucking raining. He'd missed the bus and it was fucking rain, and he was totally going to get dropped from the play if he was late again and he was so fucking screwed, because they were doing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and by some unforeseen miracle he'd landed the main part of Viola... well Cesario, as she's referred to throughout the majority of the production, and honestly Gerard wasn't all that keen when he'd heard the only main part he'd managed to get in this damn theatre group was of a fucking crossdresser. 

For someone who was supposed to be in the closet, he was doing an awfully bad job of it.

Well, for the most part he's Cesario, a 'man', well Viola, dressed as a man, which is a rather difficult concept to get his head around and he's honestly stumped why they didn't get a girl to play this part; something about the fact that the character is predominantly male and for the ease of it, but Gerard couldn't really give the slightest of fucks as he stumbled over where he should be stressing more over the fact that he was late or the fact that he was going to have to wear a dress in front of an audience at some point in the near future.

Okay, he was a fucking drama student, perhaps that was to be expected, but from the looks of things, if he didn't get there fast enough, he very much doubted that he'd be a drama student for all that much longer. Lead role or not, crossdressing crossdresser or not.

Gerard pulled his hood up against the torrential rain; it did very little use in sheltering him, as he was already going to turn up to theatre not just late, but as a drenched rat, which he was sure would be an absolutely wonderful look for him. At least it gave him some sort of vaguely heterosexual alibi with which to fuss over his hair today, because by now the freshly dyed black locks were soaked, and if the dye started to leak, he swore he was going to cut a bitch, because he'd reckoned by now he'd rather wear a dress for the rest of his life than turn up with black hair dye running down his cheeks like some sort of Victorian chimney sweep.

He exhaled, perhaps in relief, or perhaps in dread as the tall building of the theatre came into view as he turned around the street corner, the skate park lying further down the road, and Gerard could help but let out a genuine groan of disappointment as he noted the place to be empty - devoid of life in the form of punk ass skater dickheads, or more importantly, Frank Iero; Gerard's favourite punk ass skater dickhead, that he was currently working on eternally denying to himself the crush he had on Frank, which totally didn't exist of course, but Frank was really cute.

Fuck. Frank was an asshole, because not only was he practically drop dead gorgeous, but heterosexual, and casually homophobic - not some sort of stuck up catholic 'gay is a sin' kind of asshole, but the kind of person that frequented words like faggot and expressions such as 'that's so gay', and Gerard knew if he was worse at anything than arriving on time it was falling for the right people.

Straight boys were assholes.

He sighed, pulling out his earbuds as he crossed the road towards the theatre, preparing himself for just how he'd get shouted at when he finally turned up, but he had technically missed the bus, and technically he could blame Mikey for this, because his mum still didn't trust his fifteen year old brother home alone and Gerard had to wait around for an extra fifteen minutes as she was stuck in traffic until she arrived home and could sufficiently supervise Mikey, of course, never offering to drive Gerard to theatre, and making him ten minutes late in the process.

So technically, he was late because his brother existed; Gerard couldn't help but think that wouldn't exactly go down all that well as an excuse, considering the fact Mikey was dating the younger sister of the fucking director, so he reckoned he'd have to take the entire blame here, which would of course, be wonderful.

"Ah, Gerard, seems you finally graced us with the honour of your presence - how kind, how kind!" Gabe raised his eyebrows as Gerard, or as he would be more truthfully known as right now, drenched rat boy, stumbled into the theatre, twenty minutes late, fucking soaked, and scowling like hell. Gabe, being a straight boy, was, of course, in Gerard's eyes, an asshole.

"My brother needed-" Gerard began to explain, pushing his words out all too fast, yet never fast enough to quite get Gabe to give a fuck.

"Well, I'm sorry if you had to say at home and suck your brother's dick for him, but you're the fucking lead part here, and you know they should have given it to me. You could at least get here on time, you know, it'd do us all a wonderful favour indeed." Gerard could help but turn scarlet at the all too casual mention of dick sucking; Gabe couldn't know and Gabe didn't know, but it was a touchy subject to say the least.

"Fuck off." Gerard shook his head, making his way towards the dressing rooms, wondering just how long it be until he had the honour of being publically crucified in front of the whole theatre group.

"You're like twelve." Gabe scoffed; rolling his eyes at the asshole that had somehow stolen 'his part'. Why Gabe even wanted to be Viola, Gerard had no clue, perhaps if he was all that keen to walk around on stage wearing a dress then perhaps the aforementioned dick sucking was more of a reflection of Gabe's personal life than Gerard's.

Gerard was of course hopelessly single with an even more hopeless crush.

"I'm seventeen, Gabe. You're one year older than me." Gerard remained the dickhead, before closing the dressing room door behind him, cringing as he heard Gabe call after him regardless.

"I'm an adult and you're not, faggot."

Faggot.

Lovely - just the confidence boost Gerard needed right now, and of course, Gabe had to be just the asshole to give it to him.

Gabe had hated- loathed Gerard ever since he'd joined the group two years ago, and for a reason Gerard simply couldn't place: he hadn't particularly stolen his roles or anything, after all this was the first vaguely decent part he'd gotten since being here, and still it was as a crossdresser.

Perhaps it was that Gabe was one of those conceited fucks that actually thought they'd get famous from this. Like he actually saw himself as the next Leonardo DiCaprio or something, and he had a fucking agent. Gerard... well... Gerard wasn't entirely sure why he still went. When he was fifteen his councillor suggested it as something to do to boost him confidence and he'd been gullible enough to go along and he kind of totally had a crush on the under 16s group leader, but then he got arrested for pedophilia, and things certainly got kind of awkward then, and they got this woman with lisp who practically shot you down for using any kind of slang whatsoever, and then really, Gerard had never been happier to turn sixteen and get out of that shit.

Even if he had turned sixteen as a virgin, and his fourteen year old brother had rubbed it in his face at the time that unlike his brother, Mikey wasn't a virgin, but whatever, Gerard turned seventeen and was still a virgin, Mikey turned fifteen and still regretted it.

Perhaps Gerard still went to theatre because it was stupidly near the skate park and Frank, being a typical straight boy never pulled his jeans up even when they rode so damn low on his hips as he skated down the ramps, and Gerard swore to fuck there was something wrong with the world in the fact that Frank was single.

That, or perhaps God simply took pity on him, not that Gerard would have preferred to admit that, at least he was thankful that he didn't have some girl to hate on and spend his whole day 'Taylor Swift'ing over and writing songs about how much he was totally better for not wearing short skirts and that Frank belonged with him.

Song writing though, was something Gerard actually liked, and singing, yeah, perhaps. He'd been in choir when he was in middle school, and that was literally the height of his singing career, so he thought it best to ignore his passion there, and continue crossdressing and putting up with Gabe Saporta at a theatre group for the rest of his days, or perhaps it was just Frank's lack of a girlfriend that was stopping Gerard from pursuing his destined career as the next Taylor Swift.

And if Gerard knew anything though, it was most certainly that straight boys would be the absolute end of him.

-

To Gerard's absolute luck, though, it didn't stop raining, and as the theatre group session came to an end, and Gerard found himself scarily close to punching Gabe Saporta in the face, he came to realise that he'd have to walk back in this fucking dress that they'd given him as a costume, because despite being put on the radiator, his clothes hadn't dried on bit, and he had this awful nagging suspicion, that somehow, inexplicably, Gabe Saporta was most definitely to blame.

"Walking home, huh? Princess Gerard?" Gerard exhaled, attempting to keep his composure as his faced turned bright red, the kind words of none other than his favourite person in the world, Gabe Saporta, hitting his ears. "I must say the black lace on that dress really does bring out your curves."

The dress: Gerard's least favourite thing in the world after Gabe Saporta, was sleeveless and floor length with black lace and pinned in at the waist, giving the illusion of curves and femininity, and it had this fucking padded bit around his chest and Gerard genuinely could pass as a B cup right now.

"Go fuck yourself, Gabe." Gerard snapped in response, pulling on his still drenched hoodie for earlier without a care, because fucking hell, he could vaguely get into this and it was still fucking raining, and he looked an absolute sight like this, almost as if he was some sort of runaway goth bride, and Gerard seriously couldn't express enough how this was not a good look.

Fortunately, in the fact, probably the most and only fortunate thing which had occurred today was Gabe's silence as Gerard walked out the theatre door, for once making an effort not to walk past the skate park, because if Frank Iero saw him like this, that would surely be the worst decision he'd ever make.

There was no question in the fact that Frank would laugh and he'd never hear the end of this at school, and really, he was thanking every holy deity he didn't believe in right now that Gabe didn't go the same school as him, because otherwise he might as well just go sit down in the middle of the fucking road and wait for a car to hit him.

He pulled out his iPod from his bag as he made his way down the street, dodging the gaze of anyone in an attempt to pull himself off as some sort of badly dressed emo girl, and not some guy forced into wearing a dress after the rest of his clothes got soaked, but as God would have it, it was sure enough that his iPod had got drenched in with his clothes and was now all so thankfully just downright refusing to turn itself on, and fuck, Gerard was going to shoot someone right now as he contemplated whether he could switch it with Mikey's and let his brother take the blame for this one before anyone noticed.

Gerard and Mikey had practically the same music taste anyway so he doubted it would entirely matter, after he deleted the entire Spice Girls discography, of course, because it seemed Mikey's girlfriend decided on the sex music, even at his house, which was something Gerard morally disagreed with and hoped Frank would have the same thoughts on the matter.

But of course, Frank had a wonderful music taste, and was also not Gerard's boyfriend and totally heterosexual, and totally not standing with his friend Bert at the bus stop approximately thirty metres ahead of Gerard- fuck, oh fuck, he was, Gerard truly reckoned he was better off dead right now.

He could do this, he could totally just not make eye contact and walk as fast as he could past them and surely they'd think he was a bit strange but nothing would come of it, and it be absolutely fine, and oh fuck this was not going to work.

"You know you missed Halloween, honey." Gerard stopped dead in his tracks, heart thudding loud in his chest as he managed to piece together what had just happened, dragging his gaze up to a smirking Bert McCracken, putting a cigarette between two greasy fingers to his lips.

"Shut up, Bert." And then Gerard's heart changed from heavy thuds and stopped beating entirely as Frank Iero spoke up. "The dress is cool, you look hot, kind of like a fucking drenched rat, but hot if you ignore that, I mean it's raining - totally not your fa-"

"Yeah, I apologise, Frankie, here has a thing for vampire brides or whatever the hell you're supposed to be." Bert interrupted Frank, and Gerard stood there for a good few seconds, frozen, heart stopped as he met Frank's gaze, because dear fucking Jesus, Frank had just called him hot.

"It's not a Halloween costume, Bert." Frank rolled his eyes and Gerard's stomach did somersaults at simply the way his lip piercing moved as his lips formed a smile. "Anyway, sorry that we bothered you, it's a cool dress, bye."

And Gerard could barely force himself to walk forward once more, his eyes frozen wide as he began to contemplate if he'd actually hallucinated what had just happened, because surely frank hadn't genuinely called him hot, and in this pile of shit of all things, fucking hell. Perhaps he was only doing it to be nice, because Bert made that comment about Halloween, but Gerard knew by now that Frank Iero didn't do lies, that he didn't do faked compliments, Frank gave you the truth as he saw it and perhaps the odd middle finger if he felt it suited the situation.

And yet, somehow, that made this all such much worse for Gerard.

-

When Gerard got home, he made a beeline to his own room at first, hiding away without a word and changing out of the costume that Frank Iero had somehow spiralled him into developing mixed feelings for, because Jesus fucking Christ he had a headache from thinking about what had just happened.

It felt good to throw the thing onto his bedroom floor though, and perhaps even better to get into a warm pair of jeans and a Rolling Stones shirt, because although Frank seemed to like them, weird black lace dresses certainly weren't Gerard's thing.

"How did your role as lead crossdresser go?" Mikey asked, stepping into his bedroom without a warning, let alone a knock, seriously, Gerard could have been naked, or worse, still in that dress.

The seventeen year old scowled at his brother, running his fingers through his hair in the mirror in a hopeless attempt to form the black stringy mess into something that looked even vaguely acceptable. "Jesus, Mikey, fucking knock will you? I could have been naked or masturbating or something."

"Masturbating over Frank, you mean." Mikey shrugged off his brother's request, closing the door behind them at least and saving their mother the absolute pleasure of listening to her teenage sons discussion masturbation and poor Frank Iero. Mikey knew about his brother's obsessive crush on Frank, of course, as Gerard was kind of obvious about it, but at least Mikey was far too embarrassed about it to actually tell anyone, and that was the kind of trust the Way brothers had.

Gerard just gave him an 'I will shoot you' kind of look before giving up on his hair entirely and falling back onto the double bed in the middle of the room. "Can we please discuss anything but Frank, because seriously he's already indirectly given me a headache today?"

"Are you sure you don't mean heartache? Or dickache? Remember when you totally got hard over him last su-"

"Remember when the girl you lost your virginity to spread a rumour that you had a bendy dick?" Gerard added, smirking like hell, because seriously that had happened and indeed it was beyond hilarious.

"And this is the only time I will ever say this but please continue to talk about Frank and how he gave you heartache today." Mikey mimed shooting himself and sitting down on the bed beside his brother, Gerard only rolling his eyes before continuing.

"Yeah... Mikey, today was fucking weird, because you know how it's raining and I had to walk there and back in that shit?" Mikey smirking, nodding, and taking great pleasure in the fact that Gerard's hair was still damp and dripping slightly in places. "Laugh all you want, okay, but I had to walk back in the dress-"

"Oh my dear lord you are fucking kidding me please tell me there are pictures." Mikey exclaimed, eyes widening to an unhealthy amount and almost falling off the bed in a fit of laughter, and then Gerard actually did push him off the bed and he landed on the carpet floor with a bump and a string of the most pleasant profanities. "I fucking hate you."

"Yeah, so I had to walk past Frank and his friend Bert, and the weird thing was, I don't know, I just... Frank didn't recognise me or anything, I-"

"Gerard, he doesn't fucking know who you are, stop daydreaming." Mikey called back up from where he still lay on the floor, catching Gerard's gaze: all narrowed eyes and scowls. "It's comfy down here, whatever."

"Whatever, okay, you may have a point, but still, Bert basically said I looked liked I'd dressed for Halloween or whatever and then Frank fucking defended me, and he said... he said I looked hot." Gerard emphasised his words in importance, leaving Mikey to raise his eyebrows and look back blankly at his brother.

"So what? You got catcalled by a couple of assholes, one of which you happen to have a really creepy crush on. Well fucking done, I'm glad you've finally accomplished all you've wanted in life." Mikey got up from the floor at that point, raising his eyebrows at Gerard, who firmly shook his head in response.

"No, he told me I looked hot, that means he finds me attractive, that means that all hope is not lost." Gerard exclaimed, all wide eyed and his smile far too big for his face, and really, he looked a fucking mess, and Mikey was all too embarrassed to know it.

"He said you look hot in that dress, as a girl, when he thought you were a girl. He doesn't find Gerard Way attractive, he finds Viola from that shitty play you're doing attractive." Mikey corrected Gerard with what was pretty much the truth, however, of course, arrogant and fuelled by Frank's words, Gerard continued dashing forward in ignorance, all stupid grins and pipedreams.

"Yes but it was me in that dress, it's not Viola, it's me. Me in a dress." Gerard argued, all too proud of what he would call his life's greatest achievement so far.

"Yes, you in a dress that you hate. He finds you hot because he thinks you're a girl. Frank's straight - I thought we'd covered this by now. You know, that time when you watched Mean Girls like three times in a row and totally didn't cry-"

"Mikey." Gerard shook his head, falling back onto the bed, perhaps almost giving up in his efforts to woe the painfully attractive and even more so, painfully heterosexual, Frank Iero. "Fuck, it's only fucking me as a girl, me in a dress. You're right, aren't you? Fuck, I hate straight boys; did I ever tell you that? I mean I'd have to pretend I was a girl for him to actually date me-" Gerard sat up all at once, his eyes widening to the size of the fucking moon and Mikey was about to punch himself right in the face if Gerard was really considering what he thought he was. "Surely it can't be that hard? I mean he thought I was today, didn't he? Didn't he? Oh my god, Mikey, this is fucking brilliant."

"No, Gerard, no, you are not-" 

"It's so easy now, I mean how hard could it be to be a girl. I mean, he already thinks I am, I just need to wear make up and skirts and shit, surely, huh?"

"Not that I support this idea, because I most definitely don't and it really is the most fucking stupid thing I have ever actually heard. Where are you actually going to get make up and skirts from?" Mikey asked, well ready to punch both Gerard and himself in the face right now, because sure enough, Gerard had some pretty fucking stupid ideas but this was most definitely the worst.

"Mikey, you forget that my best friend is in fact an actual girl." Gerard smirked, grabbing his phone from the bedside table and texting what would most likely be the weirdest message he'd ever sent to anyone.

"Lindsey is not going to let you do this, Gerard."

-

Lindsey Ballato made her way upstairs into Gerard's bedroom have being invited in by Mrs Way and of course offered several hot drinks and a variety of snacks before she was let upstairs. 

Gerard’s text had been awfully vague and she was confused to say the least, if not more than a little concerned because usually anything Gerard had to say regarding Frank Iero was usually not in his best interests; Lindsey knew Frank was an asshole, and she knew Gerard did too, but Gerard was unfortunately very gay, and somehow that ensured he was horribly attracted to assholes.

"Do you have any explanation whatsoever?" Lindsey asked as she pushed open Gerard's bedroom door to find her best friend stood drawing on eyeliner wings as his brother stood as an unwillingly onlooker in noting more than utter shame and disgust.

"Oh, yeah, I'm going to dress like a girl so I can date Frank, it's gonna be great." Gerard continued with a smile, turning back to his eyeliner like there was nothing out of the ordinary regarding what he'd just said, and even more confused she turned to Mikey, who she really couldn't help but feel sorry for right now.

"He walked back from the theatre in a dress and Frank catcalled him, saying he was hot in it or something and now he's determined to masquerade as a girl and then date Frank, ignoring the obvious problems with this, such as the fact that he can barely look at Frank for more than five minutes without getting half hard." Mikey met Lindsey’s gaze at that moment: big pleading eyes behind white-framed glasses. "I beg everything of you to please do not let him do this, I swear to God, I will shoot someone." And with that Mikey left, and Lindsey couldn't say she blamed him.

"Gerard, you do realise, even if not at first, Frank is going to realise that you're a dude eventually, and he's not going to be happy afterwards. Hell, he'll probably hate you for it, and the two of you are most definitely not going to get further than first base." Lindsey tried as she might to talk her slightly mad best friend out of some terrible idea that would really just about fuck his whole life up, but Gerard was horribly stubborn and far too infatuated with Frank to be nothing more than dead-set upon this idea of his.

"Just please, let me have one date with him, that's all I need, let me have that, please." And Gerard was all wide puppy dog eyes and Lindsey was about to slap herself across the face for what she was considering. "One date. I promise. We'll kiss and shit, and then I'll break up with him. I can move to Canada, whatever, it'll be tragic."

"Gerard-"

"Please. One date. I promise. Just take me shopping."

Lindsey exhaled, in no way ready to make the worst decision of her life, but it seemed Gerard was far too persuasive when he needed to be. "Fine. But one date and one date only."

-


	2. Mikey Way's Teenage Angst/Boner

"I dread to know what is in those shopping bags, to be honest." Mikey's gaze fell to the four plastic bags that Gerard and Lindsey carried between the two of them, and the younger of the two brothers couldn't help but cringe at the blatantly feminine nature of the brands and logos imprinted upon the white plastic, stretched and heavy with the contents of the bags.

"Not like this has to be any of your business, Mikey." Gerard remarked, his tone snide as he heaved the bags to the table beside the foot of the stairs, telling himself he'd take them upstairs later, despite the inevitable untruth in that statement.

"Well, you are my brother, unfortunately, and you are just about going to ruin your life and in turn mine with this stupid decision, so just a heads up, that when you've messed up don't fucking run to me for sympathy." Mikey rolled his eyes at Gerard's wide eyed almost confused gaze, grabbing his coffee from the table and making his way upstairs in order to blast his music way too loud and hate his brother really, really angstily and ring Alicia on the mainline and fucking make his family sorry with the phone bill, of course, until his mum came home and told him to stop, but Mikey was quite the angsty misunderstood teenager and would probably ignore her existence and refuse dinner, unless it was pizza, because Mikey wasn't stupid, of course.

"It's just one date kind of thing, Mikey. There's no telling he'll even be interested in me..." Gerard's tone faltered at that, his words no longer shouted up the stairs after his younger brother, but directed at the floor and almost melancholically so. "I mean, it's Frank."

"As much as I hate to say it, asshole, he didn't catcall you in a dress for nothing." Lindsey exhaled as she spoke, burying her dignity in favour of friendship and trying her best not to punch herself at the wide grin that followed.

"Yeah, I mean, this'll be easy, I just gotta turn up at that skate park dressed all pretty and shit, and it'll be fine." Gerard grinned rolling his sleeves up as he went to make himself a cup of coffee, only to find that Mikey had rather angstily used up all the coffee. "No fucking coffee." He commented aloud, perhaps to Lindsey, perhaps to the wall, rolling his eyes and making his way into the living room, Lindsey sighing: used to this, yet no way complacent with it.

"You might actually want to shave and learn how to put makeup on properly and shit, before you actually go out for real and see him." Lindsey pointed out, her eyes fixated upon the Way family picture lying crooked and ignored, propped up on the fire place top across the room from the armchair Lindsey had taken; Gerard having consumed the sofa entirely with his sprawled out body, flipping through channels on TV in search of something that didn't make him want to punch himself in the face.

"Fuck off Lindsay fucking Lohan! Is there a fucking channel she is not on?" Gerard groaned, his voice muffled against the cushion his face was half buried in, one eye focused on the TV screen across the room.

"If you don't like Mean Girls, you make a pretty crap girl, just saying." Lindsey noted, her eyes still fixated upon the photo of the asshole on the sofa next to her from ten years ago, and she sighed almost, shaking her head a little as she wondered what the little kid in the photo would say about himself now and the contents of the shopping bags in the hallway, and the dickhead this was all for.

"I can put on eyeliner, I will wear a dress. What more is there really too it?" Gerard groaned, his gaze catching Lindsey's as he gave up all hope upon the TV, switching the thing off entirely and at the plug socket beside the sofa that screwed with all the power in the house for the next five or so minutes, slamming Mikey's blasted Metallica to a halt also, and Gerard couldn't help but smirk as he sat up, watching Lindsey raise her eyebrows before turning her gaze to the stairs as Mikey's feet fall like elephant stampedes, rapidly approaching his brother with the wonderful gift of a fist to the face.

"Gerard." Mikey stood in the doorway, fuming, fists clenched, leaving nothing but a bad outcome for everyone here, and Lindsey really wanted to leave, but she couldn't leave with a clean conscience and she really just prayed that Mrs Way got home soon. "What the fuck was that for?"

"My amusement, mainly." Gerard commented, smirk just part of the package deal, and at that moment, Lindsey could really sympathise with Mikey's need to punch his brother in the face.

"I'll tell mum you're dressing up as a girl to impress Frank Iero." Mikey jumped straight to his newly acquired and perfectly polished method of blackmail.

"Do so." Gerard let a smirk fall over his lips. "I'll just hand mum a nice little list of all the people you've slept with."

"And I'll hand her a piece of blank paper as I do the same." Mikey sighed, shaking his head as he switched the power back on and Metallica began to blare out from his bedroom once more, yet he couldn't just leave with the look Lindsey was giving him, and the guilt fucking with his stomach.

"Please don't purposefully fuck this up for him." Lindsey spoke as soon as she knew she had caught the attention of the younger of the Way brothers. "I know that's a beyond painfully stupid idea, but Frank is also beyond painfully stupid, and just let him put on a fucking dress and some makeup for a few days if it makes him happy."

"Fine." Mikey groaned, catching his brother's gaze as he continued. "I'm so not going to give you a shred of sympathy when this does fuck up though, and I'm going to Alicia's so tell mum I'm over at Ray's or something."

"She's going to call his mum after what happened last time with weed, Mikey." Gerard rolled his eyes at his brother and couldn't help but remember how shocked his mother had been when she found a small ziplock bag of marijuana in her fifteen year old's coat pocket along with a phone number - admittedly it wasn't the phone number of a drug dealer, as she had initially thought, but the phone number of some girl he saw at a club he wasn't supposed to be let into, but it seems Pete Wentz was very good at lying and the acquiring of fake I.D.s, also.

He never even bothered with this mess at all: all his mother had to worry about with him as a fifteen year old was getting him to come out of his bedroom and perhaps speak to someone once in a while, so he reckoned the contrast was quite the shock.

"Tell her I'm going to Pete's - she doesn't have his mum's phone number." Mikey exclaimed, grabbing his coat off the hook, checking his pockets thoroughly this time and pulling out a lighter with a smirk. "I'm guessing she didn't notice this."

"Mikey, for fuck's sake, she'll use the phonebook after the weed incident." Gerard rolled his eyes, really just wanting his brother out of the house so he could put on some dresses in peace before his mother got home, but if the dickhead got caught again he knew he'd be nailed to the house in eternal babysitting duty.

"I'll take the fucking phonebook with me then." He exclaimed, grabbing the hefty yellow book from the bookshelf and shoving it in his messenger bag and storming out the front door, leaving Lindsey to bite back her smirk as she tried her best to gather any amount of compassion for Mrs Way.

"Well we're all screwed if she actually needs to use the phonebook, because that's not going to see the light of day any time soon." Gerard shook his head as he spoke, making his way into the hallway, "but for now, you are helping me pass as an attractive female."

"Attractive?" She raised one eyebrow in a jokey manner, leaning back against the wall beside the stairs.

"Gorgeous, actually." Gerard corrected her with a smirk, grabbing two of the heavier than he had remembered shopping bags and glancing at Lindsey before tackling the stairs with them. "Come on, help me with this."

"I'm helping with you enough by the fact that Mikey hasn't given you a black eye already." She rolled her eyes as she spoke, grabbing the other two bags and lugging them up the stairs and into Gerard's bedroom behind the face palm worthily lovestruck seventeen year old which she often questioned about calling her best friend, as she tried not to think too long about what she'd just agreed to help him with.

-

"How the fuck are you supposed to wear shit like this on an everyday basis?" Gerard looked at himself in the mirror: leather miniskirt riding high up his hips with black tights that clung to his thighs all too tightly, and pulling a 'Misfits' shirt over his head, and looking at himself like he deserved punching in the face, because maybe this really was a fucking stupid idea.

"You might want a jacket with that or he's going to see your fucking gross armpits." Lindsey told him, ignoring his comment as she texted absent mindedly sat on Gerard's bed and generally praying for both of their sakes that Mrs Way didn't decide to come home early today. 

"Ah shit, I have to shave, don't I?" Gerard examined his armpit hair in a manner Lindsey really didn't want to witness. "Fuck, this is harder than I thought it would be." He groaned, pulling on the leather jacket Lindsey had insisted he bought. "I look all punk, man."

"Frank's not going to even go near some preppy ass bitch, you know that, and this is already a stupid idea, Gerard, so if you feel uncomfortable wearing a leather jacket I am more than happy for you to discontinue this plan entirely." She groaned, watching as the seventeen year old putting on eyeliner: the only thing he was comfortable with doing here, and ran his fingers through his hair.

He was planning to go out and actually talk to Frank like this, which really, could be nothing but a bad idea, especially when this was the first time he'd actually dressed like this properly, and Jesus Christ, she really didn't blame Mikey for hiding away in his bedroom and ignoring what was happening across the hall until it was over or Gerard ruined his life doing so.

"Nah, I'm fine." He told her with a smirk, grabbing his cellphone and looking down his body with confusion. "Wait where the fuck am I supposed to put this? There are no fucking pockets?"

"Welcome to being a girl." Lindsey let a giggle slip her lips as she rolled her eyes at the seventeen year old boy in a skirt freaking out over pockets, and she wondered just how and why on earth she had ever picked this dumb fuck to be her best friend.

"Fuck, this is going to go terribly, isn't it?" He exclaimed, falling back onto the bed, leaving Lindsey to wonder why on earth she even bothered with him. "Fuck, he's going to know I'm a guy instantly, isn't he and he's going to think I'm a fucking weirdo, fuck!" Gerard's words ascended in volume at a great velocity as he had what would probably be considered a mild mental breakdown in his bedroom over some teenage boy and really, in Lindsey's opinion, he was doing a great job of acting like a teenage girl already.

"Gerard, you were awkwardly wearing a dress and he still thought you were female and now you've gone all out, I think he could look at your dick and still think it was a vagina." Lindsey sighed, really just wanting him to fuck off and realise that he couldn't even talk to Frank and then give up on this plan of his entirely before he ended up ruining everybody's lives in the process.

"Can you please shut- oh fuck... Gerard?" Mikey pushed open his brother's bedroom door, only wanting to scream at his brother in demand for quiet only to stop himself as his jaw dropped completely at the sight of his brother like this, because there was no denying he actually made a hot girl, not that Mikey would actually voice that because ew no, that was just weird. "Wow, you don't actually look like a tranny, you actually look female."

"Do I?" Gerard's eyes widened, because seriously Mikey was never going to ever lie to him to boost his confidence - that was something he could be very sure of.

"Yeah, unfortunately." He rolled his eyes, still unable to look his brother in the eyes like that, and Lindsey couldn't help but smirk a little at his response, because it was clear that he was certainly out of his depth here. "So what are you going to just go up to Frank like that and be like kiss me? It's Frank Iero - he's an asshole, he's going to make you fucking work for even an ounce of his attention."

"But he called me-" Gerard protested, conflicted in what his brother was telling him, unsure as to whether he was actually trying to help him or just protect his own dignity.

"Yes, he catcalled you, well fucking done. He's Frank Iero - that means nothing to him, you mean nothing to him." And with just enough emotional trauma inflicted in his brother, Mikey slammed the door behind him and stormed out.

"I'd say he's being a little harsh there." Lindsey said into the silence, attempting to piece back together the emotional wreck in a skirt sat beside him, but with what Mikey had just said, it was certainly proving more difficult than expected. "I'm sure Frank will like you after you talk to him, Gee."

"Yeah but what if he doesn't and this is all for nothing and then Mikey will absolutely have the worst thing to blackmail me with for eternity if this ever comes up I will just about shoot myself, so maybe, maybe yeah I shouldn’t do this, don't you think?" He asked, pulling his hair back as his makeup began to smudge a little.

"I'm not going to lie when I say that it wasn't exactly the best of ideas in the first place, Gee." Lindsey exhaled, wondering how she'd go about this, certainly it was easier than picking up the pieces of his emotional wreck when things would inevitably go wrong with Frank, but of course no part of being just so involved with Gerard’s hopeless crush on the most hopeless of people was enjoyable at all.

-

"So, you love her?" Ray asked, eyes scanning over Mikey's bedroom wall as they sat down on his bed; the curly haired of the two looking obviously more interested in what was happening on his cell phone right now than the typical first world problems Mikey was springing from his lips at a velocity that he doubted even sound itself could keep up with.

"I don't know." Mikey mumbled, holding his head in his hands, his head aching already and they hadn't even gotten to the worst of it. "I think I love her, I mean... it's complicated - you get that, don't you, Ray?" He asked, forcing Ray to pull his gaze up from his cellphone and into Mikey's eyes: perplexed and for once slightly jealous of a cellular device.

"Then, if you aren't certain, I guess, I guess, you just don't love her." Ray mumbled in response, wishing his best friend would talk about anything other than his girlfriend, Alicia, for more than five seconds, but it seemed that in the case of girl obsessed Mikey Way, that was really a lot to ask.

"What do I do then?" Mikey stood up from the bed, freaking out like fuck and raising his voice to levels that he wouldn't question if his brother could hear. "She texted me it. She said she loved me. I'm only fifteen, Ray, I cannot do this sort of commitment."

"Yet you're more than happy to fuck everyone?" Ray asked, eyebrows raised in a playful manner, only for Mikey to not quite appreciate the joke at its full potential and roll his eyes, grabbing his cellphone from where it lay charging on the bedside table and opening his messages application, before throwing his phone in Ray's direction.

"Look, she sent it me and it matters, because Alicia is really good in bed, and I really don't want to go through all the trouble of getting a girlfriend again." Mikey moaned, falling back onto his bed beside Ray, eyelids rolling down as he in absolutely idiocy left Ray with his fully unlocked phone.

"She said 'ily'. That's really different, dude." Ray exhaled, wondering just what he'd done in order for Mikey to dump his 'relationship' troubles on him for eternity, because it was really going to end up killing him if it kept going on like this: perhaps he should start charging for his obligatory service, he reckoned that then he'd end up as some kind of billionaire.

"It still means the same thing!" Mikey stressed, burying his head into his pillow, because he really just couldn't take the stress and oppression he faced daily as a straight, middle class, white boy.

"No it doesn't- fuck dude, is that your dick? Fuck... I did not need to see that." Ray threw Mikey's phone down onto the bed beside them, mentally scarred for life.

Mikey's cheeks were pretty much on fire as he picked up his phone, grimacing as the dick pic he sent Alicia opened, confirming that Ray Toro, had indeed seen his cock. Now, this had become a really awkward friendship. "So, how would you rate it out of ten?" He asked, breaking the awkward silence in an exceedingly more awkward manner, leaving Ray to gawp at him for a good few minutes as the afro donning boy failed to grasp the fact that Mikey had just indeed actually said that.

"Uhmm.... Mikey..." Ray struggled to respond, wondering if he should just leave right now, because this was just going to get increasingly more messed up and he swore he'd seen this exact scenario in porn at least twice, and despite Mikey's 'excellent' reputation, he still wasn't all that keen upon getting sucked off by his best friend.

"Mikey, I-" The door swung open, revealing Mikey's brother, no longer dressed in a skirt, but still donning a full face of make up: bright red lipgloss, of course being the most noticeably feminine part of his attire, stopping right in his tracks as he noticed that Mikey was in fact not alone in his bedroom and was joined by none other than Ray Toro, who was the one of all Mikey's friends that actually liked Gerard, and this was solely due to their shared love of comics and that summer that Gerard worked part time at the comic book store when he may have just let Ray have one or two for free, maybe.

"Gerard?" Ray exclaimed, looking Mikey's brother up and down in nothing other than disbelief and searching through his mind for some obvious explanation as to why his best friend's brother was wearing makeup, well proper makeup - more makeup than usual, that he might have somehow ended up missing.

"I... uh..." Gerard exhaled, clueless as to how he was going to get out of this one, and was really grateful more than anything that it had at least been Ray and not anybody else. He just knew he should've taken the makeup off when Lindsey left as well, but he really just could not be bothered, and he reckoned this was just his well-deserved penance for that. "I am wearing makeup, yes, and there's a good... good reason-"

"He's dressing up as a girl so Frank Iero will date him-" Mikey just burst out with it, because really, perhaps he wasn't the best of brothers and this was just revenge from when Gerard had messed with the power yesterday.

"Mikey!" Gerard exclaimed, largely considering giving his brother a black eye right now, but he reckoned Ray would rather not see that, and then again, if Ray did witness it, there would be evidence that he did it, and as much as Mrs Way was pissed off with her fifteen year old son, Gerard doubted she'd be all that appreciative if he took matters into his own hands.

"That's really the worst idea I've ever heard, Gerard." Ray couldn't help but admit what was the truth; he wasn't going to tell anyone because at the very least, he did indeed respect Gerard's privacy to an extent, but it was at least just a little amusing. "Frank's an asshole - even if you were actually a girl and you went after him, we'd still be worried, because he's just a dick."

"It's not going to happen though, so don't fucking worry your little afro, Toro." Gerard rolled his eyes, biting down on his lip and sitting down on the bed between Ray and Mikey in the spot that awkward and weirdly sexual tension, and the picture of Mikey's dick, had created. "He's Frank Iero, and I'm me, and in a fucking skirt, I'm not even me. I'm just nothing, and it's all fucking pointless."

"I want to comfort you here, Gerard, but honestly, if you just give up on this, maybe that's the best idea." Ray exhaled as he wondered whether Gerard would cope with the news he didn't want to hear at all better than Mikey did, which really would be wonderful, because Mikey hearing news he didn't want to was just about equal to the mass panic of ebola.

"So he gets the comprehensive advice and I just get you mumbling out some shit whilst texting someone?" Mikey asked, outraged to the level of ebola mass panic, and Ray was really about to actually face palm right then and right there.

"Mikey, you were freaking out about nothing, and this is seriously the seven hundredth thing regarding Alicia you've asked my advice on in the past week." Ray exclaimed in his own defence, wishing like hell that Mikey would seriously just drop it, because within the next twenty minutes he would have an entirely new dilemma regarding Alicia for Ray to oh so kindly solve.

"Gerard." Mikey rolled his eyes at Ray; turning his attentions to his brother with a question, that Gerard dreaded having to answer. "How do I know if I love Alicia, because she texted me that she did-"

"She texted you 'ily' and that's completely different!" Ray interrupted; in utter disbelief that they were actually having an argument about something just as fucking stupid as this, but it did indeed seem that Mikey's stupidity had stretched to all new levels today.

"He's right." Gerard agreed, leaving Mikey to once again take everything the wrong way.

"You would say that, siding with him-" And if Mikey were female right now, everyone would just about be throwing tampons in his face, because from how he was acting he did in fact most certainly need one.

"'Him' is your best friend, Mikey." Gerard exclaimed, his eyes widening as he came to wonder just what he'd done to be cursed with this as a brother, not that Mikey wasn't loveable at times, of course.

"Yeah... sorry..." he choked out in response, passing Ray a mediocre smile, but the curly haired best friend was just about used Mikey's erratic behaviour regarding the female species by now, and just shrugged it off. "Gerard, seriously though, just because she texted me it doesn't mean it's any different."

Gerard rolled his eyes, deciding to take a look at the text message, just to keep his brother happy and prevent Ray from shooting himself within the next thirty seconds, he did however deeply regret that decision the moment he picked up his brother's cellphone.

"Mikey..." He exclaimed, his tone full of disbelief as his eyes widened with shock and 'oh dear god I did not need to see that'. "Is that your dick?"

-


	3. Frank Iero And Catshit Corner

Gerard didn't really want to make a habit of being late at all, but it seemed that God had other, far more brutal wishes, and wishes that consisted of ensuring that Gabe spent ten minutes mocking him and shouting at him as he walked in as well, which as Gerard knew all too well, was always some good fun, but what was really the worst thing of all was the text from his mother telling him he'd have to walk home again - at least it wasn't raining, but of course, that didn't seem to make anything better at all.

And of course, there he was - Frank, and dear god, Gerard was having heart palpitations just from looking at him, and despite what everyone had said, perhaps choosing to ignore him and what he wanted to achieve wasn't the best of ideas- well, after all, you could never really know after you'd tried things out, even if only just once, so perhaps, maybe he would just let himself saunter down to the skate park in a skirt later tonight - if Mikey didn't stop him, that was.

But why should Mikey stop him? Why should anything stop him? Why should anything at all stop him in his attempts in aid of ruining his life for some fucking asshole? Of course.

It seemed walks home when he was too tired to give a fuck gave Gerard stupid ideas, and it seemed they were just ideas too stupid for him to ignore, or perhaps he was just too stupid to ignore them, and maybe, he was indeed, in fact, just as stupid as the ideas themselves.

But stupidity never seemed to real stop anyone, especially not Gerard Way, and especially not when it came to Frank Iero, and especially when he wanted to be the one that came to Frank Iero, and especially not when he was even determined to dress up in drag to get some asshole to pay attention to him.

God, he hated Frank Iero, but it was most definitely the slap me across the face and fuck me kind of hatred, because there was nothing else Gerard wanted more in the world, other than to be famous, of course, then Frank would be the one sucking his cock, ha!

At least, he'd managed to avoid Frank's attention when he'd walked past the skate park in his shitty usual clothes in the form of jeans far too tight and a shirt he hadn't washed in about two weeks now - hell, if he was a girl for real, he'd probably be fired from existence within a week, because this whole immaculate hygiene and perfect makeup thing was really proving not to be his forte.

And still as to whether Frank would even pay him any attention, stupid little skirt and all, was still an entirely different matter and one Gerard dared not think over just for his sanity's sake. Right now was exactly the time he needed Lindsey and he needed for her to lie to him about skirts and if they made it look like he actually had a butt or not, and maybe he did just need to wing it, and let a fuck up be a sign of failure and a prompt for him to give up, because he didn't spend all this money on girls' clothes for nothing, did he?

And in the end, it was frugality that brought him to idiocy - that and the fact that his mum wasn't home and therefore couldn't tell him not to, and that he was a seventeen year old boy who should go out looking like a prostitute.

-

His reflection didn't even look like him anymore, and at least in this case that had to be in his favour, regarding the lessened chance of Frank noticing him, but he was just a little concerned with just how high the red tartan print miniskirt fell on his thighs.

He was at least wearing black tights underneath, but he couldn't help but feel self conscious in these clothes at all; they were tight in all the wrong places, and the only thing he could be grateful for was the fact that the Smashing Pumpkins shirt he was wearing was his own and therefore allowed to be baggy and conceal his utter lack of cleavage, well, cleavage that wasn’t in the form of puppy fat pushed awkwardly into man boobs that he never quite got skinny enough to grow out of.

"Fuck..." He exhaled, addressing his reflection like the madman he was, because really, who opts to voluntarily ruin their life, and in such a spectacular fashion also? He grabbed a hoodie - Mikey's, because it was tight fitted and actually stopped somewhere near his hips and didn't fall down loose and baggy past the skirt, and then proceeded to drown both his hair and himself in hairspray before praying to some random God he pretended to believe in, before leaving his bedroom and praying that his mum hadn't come home in the past fifteen minutes.

Thankfully, it was apparent that she hadn't, but it was also far more unfortunate and just as apparent that Mikey had taken up residence at the foot of the stairs, throwing his converse off back onto the floor and attempting to ensure that it looked like he'd been here ever since school finished and that he hadn't gone straight to Alicia's for other straight activities, however every thought of Mikey and his secretive whereabouts were soon lost in Gerard's appearance and the determination with which the seventeen year old reached the front door.

"You're not serious?" Mikey exclaimed, eyes almost forced open wide as he struggled to take in and accept his brother's appearance, because, seriously, his brother in a skirt like that... well... that just didn't settle, especially not with his stomach, and having gone to Alicia's, Mikey had already eaten, so you could easily see from the pale expression on his face that his brother in a miniskirt was not a sight that went down particularly well at all.

"No, Mikey, I'm going out like this for my personal humiliation alone." Gerard rolled his eyes, unlocking the door, prepared to stroll right out the door with the same level of confidence he'd come in with, but for some unknown reason, it seemed like Mikey had made it his own life goal to change that.

"I'm guessing so, because I really can't see any reason why else you'd dress like that, because even though you're a guy, like that, you still look like some sort of punk rock whore." Mikey spat the last few words out between raised eyebrows and narrowed eyes, displaying nothing but overdramatized skepticality, and receiving nothing other than a bat of an eyelash and a casual roll of the eyes in response.

"But what if I told you that was entirely the look I was going for?" Gerard added, smirk grabbing his lips as he felt himself almost having to tread water in this sea of self-confidence, because right now, sinking and drowning just really would not do.

"Then I'd say you were a fucking idiot." Mikey countered, throwing his jacket down to the floor as he attempted to make his way upstairs into his room to jack off and blast something loud enough to ensure that nobody heard him or suspected anything, but it was all too obvious in the fact that Mikey only closed his door when blasting music whilst he was jacking off, because if he was just playing music that loud to be an obnoxious little shit, he was sure as hell going to ensure that everything could hear it and was in turn severely pissed off.

"How was Alicia's, huh?" Gerard asked, smirk at his lips with no falter when it came to interest in taking his little brother's arrogance down a notch. "Be nice or mum might just happen to find out just where you're spending all this free time of yours and just what you're doing in it, and even, with who."

"Be nice to me, Gerard, or mum just might find out about your little crossdressing habits, and maybe even that raging homosexuality of yours, so I'd recommend the boy leaving his house in a skirt thought twice before threatening me. Got that, pansy?" Mikey rolled his eyes, biting down on his lip as he wondered just when his older brother would decide it would be an appropriate time to go fuck off and ruin his life, because Mikey was actually really looking forward to jacking off when he got home, and of course, being a fifteen year old boy, he didn't have that much else on.

"Don't call me a fucking pansy, Mikey." Gerard was serious this time: through with insults of that calibre, and entirely so, and not at all prepared to take them from the likes of his brother.

"Whatever." Mikey sighed out in response before pushing past his brother and dashing upstairs to his bedroom and the nearest internet connection, and Gerard just hoped that if Mikey stole his laptop again then he would at least close the tab, let alone clear the browsing history when he'd finished using it.

However, Gerard reckoned if he ever wanted to have his laptop free from viruses for more than a week he would have to falsely convince mum that Mikey was responsible enough to use the internet without parental controls, because it's not like a fifteen year old boy would ever even dream of watching porn at all, is it?

-

The skate park itself is even daunting for the seventeen year old boy in a skirt, let alone Frank Iero sat a top the back of a bench, just because he was an ass like that, in the middle of the mess of people that were generally much cooler than and had a shared hatred of Gerard, and would be the ones ruining his life to a greater extent if news about what he was about to do and who he really was got out.

But Gerard wasn't Gerard anymore, not after the moment he stepped over the line from the pavement and onto the trodden down grass that consisted mainly of mud, because here, he wasn't Gerard Way, and in fact, he didn't know the guy at all, because inside the skate park, and when it came to Frank Iero, Gerard Way didn't exist, just Gee, or as Mikey would say, punk rock whore.

He didn't entirely mind that title though: it was kind of catchy, and really, he'd rather be punk rock than a total fucking dweeb, especially when Frank Iero was involved, and oh dear god, he was so involved and Gerard was walking right in his direction without a clue as to what he would say other than 'oh hey, I have a real weird stalker crush on you and look I'm a seventeen year old boy wearing a skirt because I want you to kiss me'.

And then the worst thing happened, because Frank's eyes met his eyeliner rimmed ones and everything seemed to slow down all at once, and Gerard's stomach was doing somersaults as he entirely considered the possibility of turning back and then in turn just how everybody here would laugh at him for it as they came to realise that he didn't belong here at all.

"Hey, you! Halloween costume but not on Halloween girl?" Gerard's heart seemed to stop for a whole minute for several reasons: mainly because Frank Iero had actually just spoken to him, and secondly that he'd referred to him with a female pronouns and that he didn't in fact look like some sort of sexually confused prostitute right now, which was actually doing wonders for his self confidence. "It is you!" Frank called out after him with a grin; a few people sat nearby to Frank passed their gazes in Gerard's direction, but seemed to turn in away in seconds - disinterested and satisfied with the fact that Gerard was in fact female and not just a mentally fucked up seventeen year old boy in a skirt.

"Hey." Frank added, his tone quieter, but his smile no way less as wide as he made his way over from where he was sat to meet Gerard, and really the seventeen year old was having some form of mini heart attack. "I was wondering when you'd turn up again."

"What does that mean?" Gerard choked out, stood there, almost frozen like a deer in the headlights, and Frank could only let his smile progress into a grin that seemed to totally possess the lower half of his face, and now Gerard saw that grin of his right up close; and right up close Gerard could definitely tell that the fucking asshole plucked his eyebrows, because they did not fucking grow like that.

"Means I like you, Halloween costume- actually, do you have a name? Halloween costume is a bit... well... convoluted." Gerard nearly smacked himself across the face before he tripped over his tongue: speaking before he could think - think that Gerard wasn't a girl's name, in particular. Things could have very easily gone very downhill right there.

"I'm Gee."

"I'm Frank." 

And it took all of Gerard's strength not to tell him that he could recite his full name for him and his date of birth and make an educated guess as towards his favourite colour, but Gerard didn't particularly fancy getting punched in the face today, especially not by Frank Iero, because punk ass skater boys could seriously punch.

"Do you want to go, like talk over there?" Frank moved awkwardly to gesture towards a corner of the park deserted by people and populated solely by empty energy drink cans and what Gerard prayed wasn't catshit. "It's private, although it isn't the most hygienic, but yeah, I want to talk, and maybe just escape another round of spin the bottle with people that don't have all of their front teeth." Frank made a disgusted face and Gerard couldn't help but grin to himself - not at Frank's impression, but he let the guy think that, but at the fact that he did indeed have all of his teeth and therefore was all good with Frank Iero.

He did however have a dick, but that was simply a problem for another day, and especially not the one when Frank Iero wanted to talk to him in private in the corner that smelt of catshit.

It turned out that the place wasn't half as disgusting after Frank got some branded deodorant out of his messenger bag and sprayed the place, in typical white boy fashion, and they even found a relatively clean bit of grass to sit on, and Gerard was practically in heaven right now, and he didn't even mind that heaven wasn't in abundance of the occasional whiff of catshit.

"I really was wondering when I'd see you again." Frank spoke into the silence, fixating his eyes open the sky above, before rummaging in his bag and pulling out a box of cigarettes and a lighter, and Gerard couldn't help but watch intently as the boy placed a cigarette between his teeth, lighting it sheltered by fingers clad in skeleton print fingerless gloves that were pretty much cooler than Gerard's entire existence. "You want?" Frank asked, looking up to notice Gerard's stare, and gestured at the box that lay in his palm, frozen on the journey back into his bag.

"No, I... I... uhh don't smoke." Gerard couldn't help but blush in response, wondering just how Frank would react to that, and praying that he didn't end up getting peer pressured into lung cancer over some cute boy; surely he'd already done enough - wearing a skirt, and all?

"Thought not." He commented in response, exhaling a puff of nicotine into the already heavily polluted air around them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gerard could help but ask, perhaps just a little impolitely, but Frank couldn't help but giggle in response and Gerard soon learned that punk boys didn't give a shit when it came to polite.

"You're pretty." He paused, almost as if he was thinking over what he'd just said and perhaps even calculating how much he regretted it and wanted to take it back. "And your teeth aren't fucked. Go all yellow with the nicotine, y'know. You have pretty teeth."

"And you have a teeth fetish?" Gerard's tone wavered as he stepped out on a whim with this one, blushing a little as Frank turned to catch his gaze in the silence, tension rising then falling flat almost immediately with the sound of Frank almost falling back in a fit of laughter.

"Yeah, whatever, vampire bride." Frank rolled his eyes, almost chocking on his cigarette as he sat back up and Gerard tried his best not to look too smug regarding the fact that he just made Frank Iero laugh, and almost fall over and choke and die in the process. "You got little vampire fangs to go with that costume as well. I miss it, you know? Not that... that skirt and your thighs isn't doing wonders, but-"

"I don't have teeth on my thighs and therefore you don't find them sufficiently sexually pleasing?" And Frank gave Gerard just a little playful shove as he struggled to contain his laughter once more.

"Oh, Gee, don't worry there's no lack of sexually pleasing when it comes to you." And that fucking smirk, oh god, Gerard could slap it right off his face and oh dear lord, Frank Iero was actually going to be the death of him; maybe everyone had been right, but there was no way in hell he'd take this encounter back, for anything.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gerard asked, eyebrows rose high as Frank caught his gaze, cheeks tingeing a pink that was really nothing more than cute, and of course still totally punk rock, because it was Frank, you know.

"I was hoping you could figure that one out by yourself, honey."

And Gerard did have to confess that that wink was going to be the absolute death of him some day- oh fuck the wink, Frank Iero was going to be the absolute death of him some day, and just how desperate he was already when it came to getting the asshole to like him, it really seemed that Mikey wasn't all that wrong, and it would indeed be some day soon.

-

"Hey, Frankie!" The sixteen year old stopped in his tracks, turning as he made his way out of the skate park, just twenty minutes after Gerard, or 'Gee' had left, only to see his asshole of a best friend - Bert, running after him: that all too familiar, almost intimidating smirk on his face, that could really signify nothing other than the fact he'd gotten lucky behind a hedge or something; Frank, of course being so much more classy than that, would at least invite them home for the one night stand that would then occur, and he'd even make sure they were out of the house before he called up Bert and bitched about the whole experience.

"Who was it this time?" Frank asked him, eyebrows raised high as he made his way down the street with Bert beside him: the latter carrying what Frank reckoned wasn't even his skateboard under his arm as they went.

"Huh?" Bert asked, cheeks flushing a colour of red that could really do nothing but confirm the suspicions that were already set in stone for Frank.

"Oh come on, McCracken. Who was it? You're never this happy, unless you just got laid." Frank rolled his eyes, taking pride in just how he was of course so much more discreet in his sexual endeavours - he was like a sly fox, but he totally didn't say that, because that really made him sound like some sort of predator.

"Only a blow-job, actually." He corrected Frank, face complete with an utterly pathetic look of disappointment.

"Must have been a pretty good one if you're still smiling like that." Frank exclaimed, chuckling a little, as they walked past the theatre: he never understood the fuckheads that attended that place every week like it was actually going to get them anywhere. Frank had already figured out that no one from Belleville was ever going to account to anything, and really, he was totally taking the more intelligent option by fucking and smoking his days away whilst he still could, and could convince his mum to let him leach off her.

"Yeah." Bert grinned to himself as memories of ten minutes ago in a corner that didn't smell of catshit came back to him. "She was pretty, you know, not pretty enough to think about chasing after, but you know, she can sort out my big problem pretty well."

"If you refer to your boner as a big problem one more time I will make you sure you know your whole existence is one big problem in my eyes." Frank rolled his eyes as Bert only chuckled in response: this was just the usual between the two of them, after all Frank was fucking tiny and Bert was probably more scared of Frank's dog than he was of Frank.

"Yeah, you're just pissed off because you didn't get to fuck that chick in the Halloween costume from the other day. Seriously, I don't get it - what do you see in her?" Bert asked, his eyes open wide, locking his gaze with Frank's; the sixteen year old only turned away, shaking his head, because although Bert was his best friend, he still was most definitely quite the asshole.

"Not a Halloween costume, Bert." He told him for what was probably the five thousandth time by now.

"That's all you're going to say, huh?" Bert chuckled to himself, growing far too amused with the situation and Frank was growing far too attached to the idea of punching his best friend in the face. "Not going to deny any of it?"

"Oh shut up, Bert - she's hot, okay? I think she's hot, and guess what? I think she likes me, so maybe some day soon I'll be the one with a stupid fucking grin on my face." Frank couldn't help but dream at the very least, because maybe, just maybe, he did indeed like her, well him, but that was an interesting surprise that Frank would have to face sooner or later.

"I hope she's fucking asexual." Bert smirked, rolling his eyes at Frank's almost over passionate little speech there.

"I hope your dick falls off." Frank countered, rolling his eyes as he started to wonder if his life would have been better if 'Gee' never walked past them, or simply if Bert hadn't decided to make a stupid comment on just about everything Frank did.

"Harsh." Bert raised his eyebrows, mocking offense, and Frank could only roll his eyes in response. "What would you do if she was a virgin, though? I mean with this whole go in and fuck attitude of yours?"

"I don't know." Frank let out an exasperated sigh, finding himself rolling his eyes at his best friend for the second time. "Surprise, surprise, but I haven't got my whole life planned out with her, unlike you, it seems."

"You totally like her though." Bert couldn't help but point out the obvious, yet turning it trivial with that stupid fucking grin of his.

"What is this? Middle school?" Frank shook his head, glad to turn onto his street, and just hoping for the first time in his life that his mum had invited his entire extended family over and therefore there was no way in hell that Bert could stay and continue to torment him about this stupid fucking girl, who seemed to being doing a far too good job of ruining Frank's life right now.

"Oh shut up, Frankie." Bert shook his head with a grin, stopping Frank a few houses before his, just so he could get this out without the guy escaping his grasp. "Come on, it's obvious you like her, though. It even looks like a more than a fuck kind of thing."

"When is it ever a more than a fuck kind of thing, Bert? You've been my best friend since middle school - you know I don't fucking date."

"Oh yes, you were the player of sixth grade, weren't you, Iero? Better watch out - Taylor Swift's going to write a song about you at this rate."

"Don't hate on Taylor, Bert - not cool." Frank shook his head to emphasise his words.

"Oh yeah, I forgot how much of a pansy you were, Iero."

With Bert, it seemed, the term 'friendship' was used very loosely.

-


	4. My Dick - Drawn To Scale

"You did what?" Mikey exclaimed, eyes growing wide in Gerard's direction as the two of them walked down the road to school, distanced just enough from each other to make it awkward, and Gerard was really just praying that they'd get to Lindsey's soon, giving him reason not to put up with his hopeless excuse for a brother that much longer.

"I went to the skate park to see Frank." Gerard repeated the words that had slipped from his lips, almost by accident, only moments before, and Mikey went through the whole choking on air procedure once more, only to be passed nothing more than a roll of the eyes from his brother.

"And I can only assume that it went terribly." Mikey exhaled, pulling out his phone from his jacket pocket, and began texting furiously, perhaps just as an excuse to ignore his brother from now on: it didn't matter to Gerard all that much regardless, and they were nearing Lindsey's road soon enough anyway.

"No, actually." Gerard corrected him with nothing less than a smirk, causing Mikey to look up in a display of nothing less than utter disbelief. "It went very well indeed. He recognised me as the 'girl' he saw the other day, and not myself, and also refereed to me as 'sexually pleasing' at one point."

"Oh for fuck's sake." Mikey exclaimed, shaking his head and resisting the urge to facepalm as he considered just how badly a decision Gerard had made with nothing more than stupid fucking hormones would turn out to be. "This going to be an absolute train wreck, and you know that, Gerard."

"Did you remember to clear your Internet history after watching porn on my laptop, Mikey?" Gerard snapped back, rolling his eyes as the two distanced themselves from one another a little more.

"I don't watch porn-"

"Mikey, you're a fifteen year old teenage boy - look at this realistically here." Gerard shook his head as he checked his phone momentarily for any messages or the like, but of course, as he wasn't exactly famous for the amount of friends he had, there was in fact nothing, besides a missed call from his aunt, but that wasn't something he actually cared about at all.

"At least I don't watch gay porn." Mikey fought back, causing Gerard to turn around and raise his eyebrows at his brother, not at all offended - he'd heard it all by now, but he was going to make sure he depleted his brother of all emotionally manipulative guilt.

"And what are you saying by that, Michael?" He asked, face contorted into an almost overdone expression of offense. "Are you being homophobic?"

"Oh fuck off, Gerard, you know I don't give the slightest shit as to who you bone as long as you don't go into to detail to me about it." Mikey shook his head, seeing through Gerard's facade almost instantly, and causing Gerard to break into a small smile at Mikey's rather blunt response - he just wondered what their mother would think about all this: she barely knew anything about them, she didn't even know that Gerard liked guys, and that Mikey was a manwhore, and that Gerard was dressing up as a girl to get a straight guy.

You had to feel sorry for her - she couldn't even handle the weed.

"Yet you seem to care if it's Frank - the only guy I want to bone right now." Gerard added what was in fact a good point, however Mikey certainly had his reasoning behind his behaviour towards Gerard's feelings for Frank, and the almost pathetic manner in which he had chosen to act upon them.

"Because you can't bone Frank, he's fucking straight, and really, I'm just trying to save you from sudden death here, but you seem not to care at all." Mikey's sigh came out exasperated to an extreme, as by now he was more than fed up with his brother and his utter naivety.

"Yes, but he did call me sexually pleasing-" Gerard protested, the two of them stopping outside Lindsey's house, as Gerard waited for her to make her way outside.

"When he thought you were a girl. When you were dressed up as fucking girl, when you were lying straight to his face, and as much as he might fancy the idea of you as a female, it's not at all realistic, because like it or not, Gerard, you have a fucking dick!"

"Uhh... hey guys." And of course, it was then that Lindsey chose to come outside, and of course, she had only heard the last, and of course also most awkward part of that sentence. "Does that have any context at all or should I just not ask for the sake of my sanity?"

"Both." Mikey added before Gerard could change the subject and steer Lindsey away from what she'd just heard. "Your idiot of a best friend has gone to see Frank in a fucking skirt and now he's acting like he's won the fucking lottery. In other news, I'm going to consider disowning you, and go to Pete's house and see if he's actually considered getting out of bed today." And with that, the younger of the two brothers left - Gerard couldn't exactly say he was complaining.

"Gerard." Lindsey stressed, shaking her head, because maybe her best friend was a just a little pathetic, but he was still her best friend. "So how did it go? Not saying I support this nonsense that you've got in your head, but you're my friend, so..."

"It went really well, actually." Gerard let a grin slip his lips as they continued down the road to school, ready for a fun filled day of activities, such as avoiding Frank Iero, and hoping that he didn't notice the odd resemblance between Gerard Way and the girl he'd called 'sexually pleasing' yesterday. "He referred to me as 'sexually pleasing'."

"Jesus Christ, Gerard, are you sure that's even a good thing?" Lindsey let out a sigh as she rolled her eyes at her best friend, wondering just what went through his mind exactly.

"Well, he called me pretty, as well, and he just, I think he likes me." Gerard confessed, stomach full of butterflies, but perhaps even butterflies that felt sorry for themselves - not quite wanting to be there or even let themselves react like this to something just so stupid.

"It's Frank - he's Frank, he just wants to fuck you- well, whatever fakery you've painted of yourself with him. He wants to fuck you as a girl, fake you, and not you for who you really are, and why don't you realise that this is just nothing but a bad idea?" She stressed as they approached the school gates, and Gerard grimaced at the sight of the lovely establishment, which within they would spend the next six hours.

"Because I really like him, Lindsey, I just... why does he have to be straight? If he was at least bi, then everything would be so much easier, because then we wouldn't even have to go to all this fuss, he physically could be attracted to me, although unlikely there would be a marginal chance. I swear to god, girls have it so much easier - you can just put make up and short skirts and suddenly you're attractive, with guys, I mean, as a guy, I'm just ugh."

"Because as a guy all you wear are hoodies with coffee stains in and skinny jeans - and you don't wash your hair. Maybe if you actually put some more effort in-" Lindsey began, trying not to come off too bitchy or critical, or too much like Gok Wan, but still a giver of friendly fashion advice to her hopeless wreck of a best friend.

"Effort? Fuck that." Gerard rolled his eyes, pushing his hair behind his ears. "As a guy you can't even go out wearing make up if you don't want to get shot. Maybe I should just get a sexchange, like seriously, I swear it'd make my life so much easier-"

"Gerard. You are not getting a sexchange just because you want to wear eyeliner, look why don't you just fucking wear eyeliner tomorrow, maybe even put effort in just a little bit, because you're not ugly, Gerard, and I'm sure some guy's going to notice you like that, even if it isn't Frank Iero."

"But, I just-" Gerard moaned, only for Lindsey to shake her head in response, guessing what he would say next and just not wanting to hear it.

"Maybe you should just grow up and accept the truth and even move on, huh? There are plenty of hot guys that are actually gay, hey, I'll maybe even take you to a gay bar if you promise not to be an asshole for the rest of the week." Lindsey suggested, grinning as she glanced in Gerard's direction, but there was absolutely no getting through to him right now, because there Frank Iero was: walking from the other end of the corridor and in their direction.

"Oh hey, Lindsey? Uh, do you know where I have art next? I got kicked out of my other class, so I'm stuck in this one now, it's probably full of assholes, but whatever." Of course Frank chose to address Lindsey out of the two of them: Gerard even doubted if Frank actually knew who he was, he couldn't help but smirk at the fact that Frank had got kicked out of his art class though.

Lindsey looked over Frank's timetable, which she'd just handed to him, leaving Frank and Gerard to awkwardly make eye contact, and Gerard tried to look as unrecognisable and generally masculine as possible, but with the jeans he was wearing and the length of his hair, it was certainly proving to be harder than expected.

"Oh, yeah, you've actually just got it with Gerard, here, so I guess he can take you there now." Lindsey caught Gerard's eye momentarily as the seventeen year old looked as if shooting himself in the head would be the preferable option right now.

"Oh, yeah, that's cool, thanks." Frank pulled his face into a naive grin that Gerard could help but want to punch right off his face. "See you, Lindsey." He then continued to stare in horror as Lindsey walked off and left Gerard at the mercy of Frank Iero and the art class they'd have to be in together for the next hour - fuck.

"So hey, Gerard, was it?" He turned to address the boy, who was just trying his best not to shit himself right now.

"Yeah, Gerard, and you're Frank." Gerard said aloud, perhaps just to remind Frank that he was in fact male, once more. "It's not far - the class, it's just down the next corridor, I-"

"Do you want to know why I got kicked out of my other class?" Frank interrupted Gerard to ask a question and really quite obviously direct the conversation, rather narcissistically to the subject of himself, and he even didn't give Gerard chance to answer before continuing to explain regardless. "I totally got it off with someone in the store cupboard and then the cuntface of a teacher walks in and I'm like 'oops, probably should have locked it', and he's like 'when I return in five minutes I want you both gone and we'll never speak of this again', but he totally makes a comment about it in class the next day so I go to the principal and tell him that he touched me 'inappropriately'. He didn't get fired - I am honestly quite disappointed. He was a bit of a cockblock if anything."

"So you made allegations that he was a pedophile?" Gerard exclaimed, eyes opened wide as he couldn't quite figure out how to react to this. "That's fucking serious, Frank, he could have got fired-"

"Exactly, 'he touched me inappropriately' is like the sure-fire way to get a teacher you don't like fired, but I think people are getting suspicious because I've already used it like four times, and I wouldn't exactly like to be known as a pedophile magnet, but I don't know any other good ways to get rid of teachers other than murder, so you know."

"Or maybe, you could just behave for once?" Gerard suggested, unable to bite back the little smirk had Frank had unintentionally planted upon his lips.

"Oh, but don't you know, I'm a very naughty boy, Gerard? Wouldn't like to find out just how naughty I can be?"

Gerard turned into a human tomato as Frank fell into a fit of laughter so great that Gerard had to steady him as they made their way to the classroom, and as they made their way in, Gerard made a mental note to avoid all contact with Frank Iero in future, because this was simply something he could not deal with.

-

"You know you're really good at art, huh, what was your name, again? Jared? Gavin? Whatever." It seemed Frank had other ideas when it came to ignoring Gerard, as he purposely waltzed up to Gerard's desk in the back corner and took a seat beside the already pissed off seventeen year old, his eyes focused upon Gerard's work, and having not even opened his own sketchbook.

"It's Gerard." He exhaled sharply: patience fragile and soon to be broken, as he pulled his gaze up to meet Frank's. "What do you want?" He snapped out, wishing they could just cut to the chase and that Frank would fuck off before he put two and two together, because Gerard wasn't exactly the most masculine of people - skirt or not.

"Someone to talk to." Frank said simply, a smirk gracing his lips as he opened the sketchbook and an overly sharpened pencil - something that he'd been wasting away the past five minutes at the waste paper bin with. "Someone who isn't a massive pretentious dickhead. I swear to god everyone here is so far up their own ass I'm surprised they can even concentrate long enough to even draw a stick man, like fuck off you just dropped some red paint on that - it's not art it's a fucking mistake, like you seem to be, because I can't imagine anyone's parents would want a child so fucking annoying as that."

"And you think I'm cool?" Gerard snorted at that, continuing his sketch of a totally attractive vampire dude that totally didn't look like Frank at all.

"Yeah, well, in comparison." Frank rolled his eyes as he leaned over Gerard's work once more, grinning to himself just a little. "Well, actually that fucking vampire is really fucking cool, you know, so maybe talking to you for an hour a week won't hurt my ego too much." Oh god, this can't be a regular thing, was of course Gerard's first thought as he tried his best not to actually slap himself across the face right then and there.

"Aren't you going to draw anything?" Gerard asked, eyebrows raised high as he took note of the empty page in Frank's sketchbook.

"No, actually, because if I fail, then either she'll get someone to tutor me, or she'll make me do something for extra credit, and I would say that's she's quite a MILF and-" Gerard had to stop him right there, because a description of how he would fuck their thirty year old art teacher was something Gerard most certainly did not need right now.

"What if you have to get tutored?" Gerard asked the first question that came to mind - anything that kept Frank off the topic of MILFs would do just fine in his opinion.

"Well, you're easily the best in this class, and maybe I don't mind you all so much, Jared- don't look at me like that, I'm only kidding, Gerard." Frank erupted in badly suppressed giggles as he finally put pencil to paper, leaving Gerard wide eyed as he soon came to realise that the sixteen year old was in fact drawing a dick.

"Frank-" Gerard started to protest, eyes growing wide as Frank added what was definitely precome leaking from the tip, however he didn't quite get to finish his sentence as Frank finished the sketch and wrote in his messy scrawl the following title: 'My Dick - Drawn To Scale.'

"What? They gave us A3 paper - I had to put it to a good use." Frank smirked, providing pure arrogance as his only response, and Gerard nothing but pure relief as the bell rang, and he practically raced to shove his sketchbook back in his backpack and make his way out of the room and to whatever form of legal torture he had next.

-

"You look more than mildly traumatised." Lindsey commented as Gerard sat down beside her in their maths classroom: nothing more than thankful that this was a class Frank wasn't in.

"Yeah, he insisted upon sitting next to me and then drawing a dick in his sketchbook, absolutely massively, and he went into detail about fucking people at least twice." Gerard exclaimed, shaking his head as he met Lindsey's eyes, and she couldn't help but break into a smirk.

"Yet you seem more than prepared to spend time with him when you're dressed as a girl, and now he's just an asshole to you?" Lindsey proposed, scribbling down the date in her book as the teacher walked in and set up the powerpoint he'd found on the Internet ten minuets ago.

"He kind of acts different, like he isn't such an asshole, when I'm a girl, like he just seems to make my life hell when I'm not." Gerard exhaled, coping down what Lindsey had written for the title, not even having glanced towards the front yet. "I don't get that."

"Yeah, assholes always act different around girls they like." Lindsey commented all too casually, watching as Gerard threw himself into an existential crisis at the back of a maths classroom.

"What do you think he'd even say if he found out what I was doing?" Gerard asked, his voice quiet and almost in fear of such a possibility, despite the realism of the situation, and the fact that it would inevitably, happen.

"I think there'd be less talking and a hell of a lot more punching, if I'm honest."

"I'm utterly fucking screwed, aren't I?" Gerard asked, throwing his head down against the desk.

"You could say that, yes."

-

Gerard had taken to slamming his head repeatedly against the living room wall, and although as Mikey would have liked to say he couldn't care less and this was in fact some sort of improvement in his brother's mental state, the noise he was creating was driving him just a little insane.

"Gerard, what the fuck are you doing?" Came Mikey's inevitable question, causing Gerard to spring back to life, almost as if he had been in some sort of trance.

"Banging my head against the wall, what about you?" Gerard's response was almost sarcastically nonchalant in nature, leaving Mikey wide eyed and gaping in disbelief as his older brother pushed past him and took up his previously occupied prime spot on the sofa, and even had the cheek to take a sip from his brother's coffee mug.

"Gerard, that's my spot on the sofa and my goddamn coffee, seriously I swear you have mental problems, like who the fuck bangs their head against the wall and steals people's coffee like what the fuck is wrong with you?" Mikey rolled his eyes, pushing his brother up to the other, significantly less comfortable end of the sofa and stole back his spot and eventually his coffee. "Any reason as to why you were actually banging your head against the wall or is this something if it's just best that I don't ask about?"

"Frank Iero." Came Gerard's immediate and really, predictable response, leaving Mikey in consideration of leaving the room and giving up his spot on the sofa just to save himself from having to listen to what would follow.

"Is there not anything else of any importance in your life, Gerard? Like seriously get a hobby other than stalking, please." Mikey begged, bracing himself for the explanation of his brother's intimate desires regarding poor, naive Frank Iero.

"He started talking to me today at school and dear god, I'm so fuck- like he didn't know who I was, or I don't think so anyway, he just sat next to me in art, cause he got kicked out of his old class and now he's in mine, and then he actually spoke to me and said my art was cool and then he drew his dick in his sketchbook and-"

"Oh Jesus fucking Christ, I'm surprised it wasn't you that was the one drawing his dick, if I'm honest, Gerard." Mikey exhaled, shaking his head and refusing to deny that he did indeed have a point here.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gerard wasn't quite sure as to whether this was something which he should bother taking offense to or not.

"That, maybe, you're just a little obsessed, brother, dear." Mikey pointed out, his words coming to a halt as the front door opened, a slightly traumatised Mrs Way burst in: hair windswept and handbag open.

"It's horrific outside." She commented, rather surprised to see both of her sons in the same room and no signs of physical abuse on either of them.

"Horrific in here with him as well." Mikey added, smashing any hopes Mrs Way held for even just a minute to pieces.

"Mikey why don't you just go fuck off to Alicia's or something? I don't want to put up with you, and neither does mum, so I just you find someone stupid enough to."

"What? Are you calling Alicia stupid?" Mikey exclaimed, coming to the very sudden defence of his high school girlfriend, because, you know, she was totally going to be an important part of his life forever, and he was certain of this at the ripe old age of fifteen.

"Well," Gerard let a smirk fall upon his lips, "she's dating you so-"

"Michael-" It was then that both brothers were so horrifically reminded of the fact that their mother was listening in, and in fact, knew absolutely nothing regarding their personal lives. "You have a girlfriend?" She asked, sitting down between the two of her sons, with the 'sextalk expression' on her face, and both brothers considered shooting themselves right now.

"I was wondering when it was going to happen, but boys I have to teach you about the importance of making love, and how you should always wait for someone special, and perhaps even after marriage, unless you feel very ready. You should always make sure that the girl you're dating is right for you, or you'll regret it."

"Well, it's not like Mikey hasn't already slept with like half his year already - I would say you're just a little too late there, mum." Gerard couldn't help but add, and the expression upon both Mikey's and his mother's face just made everything so worth the backlash.

"Yeah, say whatever you want, seventeen year old virgin."

"Mikey, Gerard has made the right decision here by saving himself for the right girl-" She couldn't finish her words as the younger of her two sons burst into a fit of laughter, before getting up and making his way towards the exit. "Michael!"

"Girl." Mikey repeated, his eyes locking with his brother's, smirking his way through the most perfectly constructed revenge. "Good luck with that."

"What's that supposed to mean? Mikey?" Came his mother's immediate response, only for her younger son to make his way upstairs, and leave Gerard to deal with the mess Mikey had concocted for him. "Gerard?" She finally asked, turning to him.

And before he could even process what was happening and just how fucking screwed he was right now, he'd just burst the truth right out. "I'm gay."

Mrs Way was silent for far too long, as she considered just what she'd just heard from both of her sons, and wondered just why it had to be like this. "Are you sure, Gerard? When your hormones are in full swing, it can be quite confusing-"

"I'm very sure. I watch gay porn and have sexual thoughts about guys on a regular basis, trust me, I'm sure." He stressed, wondering just how close his mother was to taking them to family counselling at this point.

"Porn?" She exclaimed, totally disgusted with even the mention of the subject. "Gerard."

"Mikey's the addict - not me."

"I have parental controls on his laptop, I-"

"He steals mine - I don't mind most of the time, means he owes me at least."

And with that, Gerard, too made his way up the stairs and into his bedroom, leaving his mother traumatised and mid-crisis.

-


	5. Frank Iero And The Phantom Uncle

"Are you sure this is okay?" Gerard, or Gee, as he is right now, dressed in a skirt that's definitely tight enough to be doing some serious damage to his intestines right now, called out, the tone of his voice filled with nerves and very obviously so.

The sixteen year old only chuckled in response, running a hand back through his dyed black hair, not even turning to Gerard, before pushing open the door of his 'uncle's house. Gerard really doubted he even had an uncle, though he was far too busy praying that they wouldn't get arrested for trespassing to really consider the possibility of Frank's phantom uncle.

"Absolutely fine, Gee." He confirmed into the silence as he held the door open for his 'date', and perhaps Gerard would have blushed if he wasn't shitting himself right now, because dear lord, only know was he realising just how much of a fucking pansy he was in comparison to Frank fucking Iero. "It's fine - he's just on holiday for a few weeks, so it makes this just a perfect place to spend some time alone together."

"So this is your pathetic attempt at a no-money required date, huh?" Gerard smirked, eyebrows raised high as they both knew that there was no point in Frank even saying anything more, as Gerard was simply just right - without a single doubt.

"Date? Is that what you want this to be, sugar?" Frank let a smirk take over his face as Gerard descended into a cherry red blush, dipping his head a little as he resorted to following Frank into the kitchen, awkwardly slipping his shoes off next to where Frank had done so, and almost with an air of confidence and professionalism that provided a hilarious contrast to Gerard's nervous, stuttering demeanour. Frank didn't mind though.

"I don't mind though, Gee. Honestly, you're cute, I'm cute - what can go wrong?" He grinned, filling Gerard's blushing silence with nothing but a reason for his blush to deepen as he considered burying himself six feet deep right now, right in the middle of Frank's 'uncle's' house.

Mikey was right - this was a fucking stupid idea.

Frank pulled open a cupboard or two, his eyes pulling themselves over the objects gathered in an uncluttered mess behind the off white doors of decade old cabinets, stopping with a smirk, as he pulled out a six pack of beer, lifting it up and pushing it onto the breakfast bar that Gerard found himself awkwardly leaning against as he continued to watch Frank: cheeks as red as ever.

"Isn't this technically stealing?" Gerard asked, stuttering over his words a little, as he struggled to admit that maybe he cared just a little too much about Frank's opinion of him for his own good.

"Aren't you technically a stuck up piece of shit?" Frank rolled his eyes at Gerard's wide-eyed reaction, reaching through the cupboards and retrieving far too much chocolate, which he placed beside the beer. "I'm joking, princess, but seriously - cool it. My uncle's fine with this. He's a cool guy, you know."

"So we're going to eat his food, drink his booze and laze around his house for a few hours, and just hope that he doesn't have a vaguely advanced alarm system or particularly nosy neighbours?"

"Of course he doesn't - he's my uncle, come on, Gee." Frank rolled his eyes, lifting the six-pack of beer up off the counter, and gesturing for Gee to take the chocolate, and maybe this was the only time that the seventeen year old found himself in gratitude of his feminine pretence. "Let's go up to the attic - he has a surround sound system in there - it sounds fucking sick, and there's no smoke alarm up there and I really need a fag, or possibly more than that."

And oh how much Gerard wanted to say 'you need a fag? You've a already got me.' but that would have most likely gotten him punched in the face, and Frank Iero was the kind of guy you just kind of knew would certainly fuck you up with his fist if he wanted to, and really that could be taken either of two ways, and with his current situation, Gerard still didn't quite know as to which of the two would be the more problematic.

-

"I left some of my CDs here the last time I was here, because seriously dude the surround system is to die for." Frank exclaimed, rummaging through a box in the reasonably furnished attic, having dumped the beer on the floor and opened a window to let the smoke out, leaving Gerard to perch himself awkwardly on the edge of the sofa and try his best not to commit social suicide. "Any requests, Gee?"

"I... uhh... I don't mind..." He mumbled out in response, making sure his skirt hadn't ridden up as he'd sat down, and that generally there was no notion to the fact that he was indeed hiding a dick under there.

"Okay then, Misfits, okay?" Frank asked, raising one eyebrow with that fucking mischievous asshole smirk that seemed to follow him around everywhere. "Or do girls not listen to things like that, huh? Enlighten me, Gee?"

"Oh, I like The Misfits, Frank, don't you worry." Gerard giggled a little, meeting Frank's gaze, almost embarrassingly determined to impress him here, although Gerard couldn't really comment upon whether girls actually did listen to The Misfits or not, but that was something that was just better if Frank didn't know.

"Oh really? Favourite song?" Frank pounced with a question like this was some sort of weird initiation thing, or maybe it was something to do with the fact that Frank really fucking loved making someone as cute as Gerard blush, especially for him.

"I... uhh... Saturday Night?"

"Of course, huh..." Frank rolled his eyes, putting in Famous Monsters, regardless of what he thought personally. "Probably one of my least favourites - it's too slow, Gee."

"Shut up, it's fucking cool." Gerard got up, instantly motivated to defend his favourite Misfits song. "It's about killing girls on Saturday nights, like a different way every Saturday - as in 'fifty two ways to murder' and fifty two Saturdays in a year-"

"Yeah, whatever smartass." Frank rolled his eyes as the first track of the album - Kong At The Gates, started blasting through the speakers, joining Gerard as the seventeen year old sat back down on the sofa in a reluctant defeat. "It's a bit typical though - guys kills girls, wow big fucking deal! You never hear about girls killing girls or guys killing guys or anything like that."

"Yeah that kind of stuff generally frequents porn more than anything else."

"Oh, because you would know, wouldn't you, Gee, huh?" Frank smirked a little, pushing Gerard down against the sofa, thankfully only with his hands, and not actually using his whole body, because otherwise that could have very easily resulted in some particularly awkward consequences. "Know all about porn, don't you? Tell me how you like it, huh?"

"No!" Gerard instantly retorted, falling into a blush as he sat up again, retreating onto the floor beside the food and booze, of course only for Frank to join him, lighting what Gerard doubted was just a cigarette, before looking the seventeen year old in the eyes and trying again.

"Tell me how you like it, Gee." He chucked a beer in Gerard's direction; gesturing to it with his eyes, "go on."

Gerard fumbled nervously to open the can, downing just a little before setting the can down next to him, and letting his face give way to what was probably his most embarrassing blush yet. "Don't you think that's kind of a personal thing to talk about?"

"Yeah, but I trust you and we're alone, so it's fine." Frank opened his own beer, downing what Gerard reckoned to be half of it in one go. "I'm just getting to know you."

Gerard rolled his eyes, muttering something about straight boys under his breath that he was just thankful that Frank didn't quite catch.

"I'd like it..." Gerard paused, meeting Frank's eyes, as he found himself overexciting the sixteen year old with what was really just nothing. "If you didn't ask me these kinds of questions. Try something that reserves whatever tiny shred of dignity you have left, huh?"

"Spoil sport." Frank shrugged, blowing smoke rings, rather than listening to Gerard talk. "Hypothetically, of course, if I kissed you, what is the probability from certainly to never that you would push me off and then punch me in the balls?"

"Hypothetically." Gerard repeated, rolling his eyes at just how ridiculous this was getting now.

"Oh, yeah, sure?" Frank raised his eyebrows, meeting Gerard's gaze. "Doesn’t have to be hypothetically if you don't want it to. Maybe I'll find out the answer to my question first hand."

"Maybe you won't." Gerard butted in, stopping him, and putting a ridiculous pout on the face of the sixteen year old. "It depends if I kick you in the balls or not."

"Depends on what?"

"Whether you're a good kisser." Gerard smirked, taking a sip of the beer, perhaps just for confidence or maybe just to hide that stupid, almost permanent blush of his, just momentarily. "Now, it's my turn to ask a question, isn't it? How many people have you slept with?"

"I lost count after about twenty five, honestly." Frank shrugged, taking another drag of smoke, watching as Gerard's rolled his eyes once again. "What about you, how many people have you slept with?"

Fuck.

There was certainly nothing secretive about the killer, deer in the headlights esque blush that had caught Gerard’s cheeks - the blush that screamed nothing more than 'virgin', right in Frank's face.

"Oh." Frank grinned a little, shuffling closer to Gerard. "You haven't."

"I'm sorry, I... I... it's embarrassing... I-" Gerard didn't even know how to cope with this, especially from someone like Frank Iero - somehow who he'd framed in some sort of naive, stalkerish admiration that was built on nothing but lies he repeated to himself everyday as he remained locked in this feminine facade in favour of some stupid fucking crush on some stupid fucking straight boy.

"Dude, wow, so if I just fucked you - that, that’d be a big deal, that'd be a big fucking deal for you, but I'm just some fucking slut... I, I'm sorry, okay, sorry for kind of acting like a dick and flirting with you like hell because maybe I did just want to get you drunk and fuck you here." Frank blushed, shaking his head to himself.

"So you don't ever do commitment, not with anybody, huh?" Gerard asked, ignoring Frank's confession to an extent, because he couldn't handle anymore awkward conversation right now at all, because he was really pretty sure it would actually just kill him.

"Bert says I just haven't found the right girl yet, but honestly girls, girls just are fucks to me. It sounds kind of harsh, but I really can't see myself having any kind of romantic relationship, like I mean, settling down, and then getting married and that kind of shit just isn't up my alley at all." Frank admitted, laying back onto the floor. "God, I'm an asshole. I assume you want to leave now and permanently break contact with me and tell all your friends about how much of a fucking dick I am."

"No, I want you just to talk to me like we're friends. You're a cool guy, Frank. I just want to know you, not fuck you." Gerard exhaled, knowing that in reality, it was the complete opposite, but with the facade he was struggling to pull, this would just have to do.

"Okay then." Frank exhaled, shaking his head as he smoked in silence for a few moments. "So, today in art I drew my cock and this kid - guy sat next to me, seemed so fucking startled like he'd never seen one in his life."

Gerard made felt like he was getting hit by a bus as he came to hear about the 'guy sat next to me', who was in fact Gerard himself - fuck.

"He was alright though - really good at art, and you don't even care about this kind of thing- girls, they don't- I don't fucking know how to talk to girls other than flirting. Guys are just simple, easy, natural, but girls are like a fucking mystery to me, you know?"

"Sometimes I feel like a mystery to myself."

"You feel like a mystery to me too, because you're not the kind of girl I know, not nearly slutty enough, but yet I want to get to know you, huh?" Frank shook his head. "Today's been fucking weird."

-

Mikey lit his sixth cigarette, filling the silence with the click of his lighter, and the dim light of the room with a short burst of fire, and yet after the thing was lit, and he inhaled his first breath, the silence, and darkness remained, and perhaps Mikey was just a little concerned, but more than anything - he was bored.

Alicia had suggested that they play some stupid fucking game with an Ouija board, and Bob had clearly just been fucking with everyone, by pulling the counter, yet nobody else had seemed to notice and now everybody was just sat in silence and utter pitch black, scared shitless - Bob had made some shit up about the 'demon' coming when the light was turned on and really if Mikey could see right now, he would have punched him already.

"Guys, this is fucking stupid." He finally broke the silence, and even if he couldn't see them, he certainly felt all the gazes in the room, turn to him - yeah, something about silence as well: really Mikey was honestly shocked that Bob hadn't burst into a laughing fit yet, that or maybe Bob was actually possessed, which if he filmed it, would probably go viral, and therefore would in fact be worth it in the long run.

"Look, I'm going to turn the light on, and I promise you that there's no fucking demon, no one's going to die, for Christ's sake- look, even if there is, then I offer myself up as a fucking sacrifice, but that's fine, because we're absolutely fucking fine." Mikey exhaled, catching a few wide eyed gazes in the darkness as he waited, before flicking the light switch back on, and preparing himself for sudden death - you know, just in case.

Rather anti-climatically, sudden death, in fact did not occur.

"See, we're fine!" Pete exclaimed, excited enough for him to have been reincarnated as the lord Jesus himself. "Told you all."

"Yeah, that's fucking bollocks." Christa rolled her eyes; eyebrows raised high as she did nothing more than laugh at Pete. "You were just as scared as the rest of us. I swear that Ouija shit's just messed up, yeah?"

"The demon spoke to us, though!" Alicia protested, eyes growing wide and almost scarily so, and if she could have seen herself, she probably would have been absolutely convinced that she was the possessed one, but no, that was just Alicia.

"Bob fucked with the hand piece, you mean." Mikey corrected, meeting Bob's gaze, eyebrows raised high, as the blonde, stubble donning guy spectacularly failed to bite back his smirk.

"Bob!" Ray exclaimed, eyes growing wide, and afro moving almost comically as he shook his head in disproval. "Not cool, man - not cool."

"On the subject of not cool - my brother." Mikey announced, gaining nothing but groans and rolls of their eyes from just about everybody else in the room.

"Please, not this again." Christa almost begged, sighing as she pulled her phone out, frantically texting someone as she spoke. "My mum's being a total bitch and actual requests my presence in my own home - ridiculous, I know! She wants me to be home for dinner, like gosh, how dare she want to feed me? It's ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous, I know." Alicia agreed, her voice a murmuring, nodding along to Christa's words more than actually acknowledging them in any manner that could be deemed vaguely intelligent, on any planet.

"I've gotta go, anyway." She got up, waving to someone - probably Ray, she kind of had a thing for Ray, but of course Ray was far too modest to ever accept it, before closing the door behind her and making her way out of Alicia's weirdass house.

"Ray are you going to go with her?" Alicia asked, almost as if it was obvious, and that it didn't leave Ray, Mikey, Pete, and Bob staring at her blankly as if she'd just requested they line dance in Turkish, or something.

"What? She's going home. Her mum, her mum wants her to eat food and be in her house, I- I don't understand." Ray looked blankly, and with just a small degree of concern between the three other guys, who were both honestly just as confused as he was.

Alicia held up her phone so he could see. "She was lying - she wanted to talk to you in private." Alicia sighed, filling the gaps and rolling her eyes as she did so. "She texted you as well, you know. Fucking turn your phone off silent for once, or really, there's just no point in it even being there, is there?"

Ray didn't even respond, eyes only widening as he almost blindly made his way out of the room and down the stairs to where Christa was waiting, a blush ready upon her cheeks.

"So someone's going to get laid tonight, huh?" Bob asked, smirking to himself, as glanced at Alicia for confirm, like she'd know absolutely everything regarding Christa and Ray's fucking habits.

"Ray, getting laid?" Pete snorted, causing Mikey to roll his eyes, letting the eyeliner donning guy, keel over in his own laughter and just a few side effects from the pills he'd taken earlier. "He'd be so fucking shy, he'd probably apologise for even getting hard, I would actually cry-"

"Pete, be nice!" Alicia exclaimed, rolling her eyes, catching Mikey, her boyfriend's gaze, with a roll to the eyes, again making it known that she really couldn't tolerate Pete. Pete, however, as much of an asshole as he was, was Mikey's best friend, other than shy, awkward Ray, of course.

"I want to get laid!" Pete moaned, burying his head in Mikey's side as a result of his headache, leaving Alicia to roll her eyes in disgust again, as Bob only smirked, lighting himself a cigarette and setting fire to the Ouija board piece with his lighter afterwards.

"Bob- the Ouija-" Alicia protested, eyes growing wide with a mix of concern and fear.

"Does it really fucking matter? It's most definitely going to kill that fake demon you're all still shit scared of though anyway." Bob rolled his eyes, watching almost far too complacently as the piece burned black.

"Really?" Pete exclaimed, sitting up like an excited child.

"Yeah." Bob nodded in response, clicking his lighter eagerly.

"Burn it all."

-

"Michael!" Honestly, Mrs Way wasn't at all pleased about being called down to the fire station to pick up her son on a perfectly normal afternoon, which she was looking forward to spending relaxing, and not screaming at her sons, again. "What on earth were you thinking?"

Mikey only shrugged back into the chair in the waiting room: Pete, Bob, and Alicia sat by his side, and really he was actually kind of glad that Ray had missed getting into shit for this one, because the guy would probably rather shoot himself rather than getting questioned by a pissed off, middle-aged, youth despising, six foot, fireman, with a clipboard.

"Teenagers these days, eh?" The fireman joined Mrs Way - the first of the parents to arrive, and Mikey was beginning to suspect that he was the only one who'd actually given them legit contact details. "Fortunately, since the fire was relatively mild, and Mr and Mrs Wentz-"

"She's my dad's girlfriend, not my mum, not even his wife." Pete corrected, sternly meeting the eyes of the officer. "Mr Wentz and Miss Johnson."

"Fine, since they have considered it to be nothing minor and would rather not go through the hassle and paperwork of pressing charges, you kids are off with a warning, but trust me - I do not want to be seeing you again, any time soon." He sighed, turning to Mrs Way. "Just sign here and you're free to take your son and punish him as you please - confiscate any lighters, at the very least, please."

"How did this even happen, Michael?" Mrs Way exhaled, shaking her head: Gerard's teenage years had in no way prepared her for Mikey's. Mikey's were like a plane plummeting from eight thousand metres high, and Gerard's were when you forgot about the last step on the stairs, and most of the time, not even that.

"Bob's fault." Mikey shrugged it off as his mother casually signed off some paperwork that could very easily be a warrant for his execution, like what - she didn't even read it. Thankfully for Mikey, it wasn't.

"Excuse me? Pete fucking told me to burn the damn Ouija shit- crap... sorry, Mrs Way." Bob blushed, catching Mrs Way's gaze as the profanity slipped his lips like it was nothing, which to Bob, it really was, but that didn't quite seem to apply when Mikey's mother stood scowling at him.

"Yeah, but Alicia said we should use the damn thing in the first place!" Pete exclaimed, pulling Alicia into the conversation and out of the world of whoever she was texting - probably her brother: bribing him to collect her without a word from her parents, or something.

"Bob was the one who jacked the whole game up." Alicia added what was a very valid point, causing Bob to shake his head a little, almost just giving up as he came to realise that he'd been blamed twice now.

"I honestly don't care who started it and just that it doesn't happen again." The officer sighed, shaking his head and muttering something about 'damn youths' as he took the clipboard from Mrs Way.

"Come on, Mikey. We'll talk about this at home." She announced, leaving Mikey to get up after her and simply brace himself for what was to come, and just who he'd leave that secret stash of porn in the corner of his room to.

"Well, wasn't that an absolutely goddamn stupid thing to do?" She exclaimed as they got into the car, Mikey watching his mother with more than a slight degree of concern as she proceeded to bang her head against the dashboard. "Seriously, why? With Gerard, I never had to deal with any of this mess."

"Yeah, because when Gerard does stupid things, they're usually far too stupid and pathetic for the law to even care." Mikey rolled his eyes, pulling out his phone and chuckling just a little as he saw Bob had texted him a series of emojis depicting a gun to someone's head.

"He's a mature seventeen year old though. It is quite honestly hard to believe that there's only two years between you."

"Oh yeah, you just don't know, mum." Mikey sighed, his mother caring his gaze, and not letting go.

"Tell me what Gerard's done." She exhaled, locking her gaze onto her youngest son's.

"Honestly, I don't think this is something I can verbalise without punching myself in the face in the process, and besides, it's a secret anyway."

And Mrs Way settled for that, concluding that perhaps she'd been through too much already in one night.

-

"How did it go?" Gerard asked, tone far too cheerful, as Mikey returned, followed closely by Mrs Way: caffeine and sanity deprived.

"Like a house on fire." Mrs Way rolled her eyes, answering for her son. "Quite literally."

-


	6. The Whore And The Virgin

"You set a house on fire - well fucking done, Mikey." Gerard rolled his eyes, pulling his shirt on and very clumsily so, but as long as Frank Iero wasn't around, the seventeen year old couldn't really care less as to how much he looked like a useless piece of shit.

"Yeah, I mean, it was an accident and totally not my fault anyway, and yet, Pete still hasn't spoken to me since Saturday and I'm kind of worried, because I reckon Pete kind of has a thing for Alicia, like he's always been almost weirdly jealous, and maybe I didn't mind that much because it makes Alicia, and therefore me, seem more attractive, but if they've gone off and screwed each other, then I really don't know what to think."

"Mikey, your relationships last what? Like three weeks at the most?" Gerard sighed, taking his seat at the kitchen table, sitting there, waiting for a cup of coffee to magical appear, because there wasn't a chance in hell that he was moving again within the next ten minutes. "Get over yourself, Mikey."

"And what? Yours last like never, at most, like none of them, because to Frank you're totally nothing more than just a really creepy stalker that he just wishes would stop looking like some shitty ass crossdressing tramp." Mikey met his brother's eyes with the intention of inflicting pain, hurt, and generally anything that would cause his older brother to get up out of what was 'Mikey's chair'. "You're a whore, Gerard."

"That's rich, coming from you." The older of the two raised his eyebrows, determined when it came to not giving in, even if it meant further wrecking the already fragile relationship with his younger brother. "How many people is it that you've slept with now, or can you not remember anymore?"

"No fucking wonder you have no friends, huh?" Mikey sighed, not really prepared to go through a full scale bitchy argument just to get his brother to move his ass out of his chair - typical, really. Mikey really felt very oppressed right now - Gerard was oppressing him, and he must be stopped, so Mikey was just going to act all angsty and defensive until his older brother took pity on him and gave him the chair with the good view out the window, and perhaps next door's bathroom window if they forgot to close it properly - that's what this was really about.

"Lindsey." Gerard snapped, pushing his best friend's name forward to prove a point.

"She just feels sorry for the lifeless little creepy stalker fag who's going to ruin his own life sharpish, I mean - who wouldn't? You're pathetic, like a charity case, and I think Frank knows that too." Mikey had most certainly gone too far, in fact achieving his goal of hurting his brother, but of course, now that he'd actually gone this far, there wasn't a chance in hell that Gerard was ever go8ing to let weakness like that show.

"You know what? I really don't blame Pete for not talking to you, because you're an absolute asshole, Mikey Way." Gerard snapped - entirely in two, everything going up in flames, and perhaps with reason. "I hope she's fucking cheated on you, and I hope she chooses him and I hope that the both of them hate your for ever associating with them and burning his house down in the first place, but of course that never even matters because you're totally going to find something else with tits to fuck within what? The next two days at most, huh?"

"At least I can." Mikey hit Gerard hard with that one, causing the seventeen year old to get up and reach his brother's gaze. "At least if I wanted to fuck someone, I could. How's that virginity of yours? I see that you've still got it."

"Can you even remember who you even gave yours to, Mikey?" Gerard scoffed, looking his brother up and down with disgust and not a care for the after effects that their conversation was absolutely sure to have, and the aftershocks that would wreak havoc upon everything that both of them knew. "Thought not." Gerard mumbled into the silence.

"You know nothing about me, you know that, right?" Mikey's voice quivered a little as he met his brother's gaze, and the first time, this menial, mindless arguing actually felt like it meant something, and entirely in the worst way, because the seventeen year old recognised it just instantly; he'd broken Mikey, and entirely so, and he hated this, because this was something he was clueless about, and he couldn't even say sorry, because he really didn't know what he had to be sorry for.

"I'm sorry, Mikey, I-" Gerard tried anyway, just on the off chance that the fifteen year old would forgive, but as Gerard suspected, he had high hopes and they were high hopes that were soon shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Not fucking good enough. Have you ever thought that you're not the only person in the world that has problems?" Mikey paused for a moment, Gerard's heart stopping, because he knew that the blame was entirely on him, and this time, perhaps for the first time, with reason. "Stop looking at yourself like you're so goddamn special, Gerard, you're just an idiot with a crush on some asshole who doesn't, and won't ever like you. Yet you just can't get one little fact into your head, can you, Gerard? He's straight and you're gay."

"And you're an asshole. Fucking happy now, are we, Mikey? Now that you've brought everyone else down, and now that you've established your problems to be the only ones of importance, now are you fucking happy?" Silence, because maybe, just maybe, Gerard had broken too. "I hope you are, you know that? Because I'm most certainly not, and for god's sake, one of us has to be, or else I'm going to goddamn punch you, Mikey Way."

"Go on, punch me then." His response was nonchalant - almost like he didn't care at all, and for one short moment, Gerard considered the possibility that he didn't, but he knew Mikey well enough to know that he did, he even cared too much at times - it just seemed that today wasn't one of them.

"No, I can't - I'm your brother-"

"Well aren't you just a fucking pansy ass faggot, huh?" Mikey rolled his eyes, almost disappointed in the lack of direct conflict. "Too scared, are we, Gee?"

"Fucking don't-" That was a sentence that Mikey finished for him, and with a punch right to his face, and perhaps Gerard wouldn't even go running to his mum, to complain and get revenge on his brother, because maybe even that wasn't worth it at all.

-

It seemed that when Gerard was angry and empty inside, he didn't drink, or smoke his troubles away, or even forget them with the help of an array of narcotics, he didn't fuck them away into his sheets, he didn't cut, he didn't burn, he didn't starve himself, he didn't recite random positivity quotes, and he didn't draw creepy fucking pictures, yet he still had a coping method, even if it was of the unorthodox variety.

Gerard made stupid decisions.

And the first of his stupid decisions for today lay in the excessive amounts of scarlet red lipstick that almost felt heavy and fake on lips - a lie like he was, like Gee, was, but maybe being a lie was still better than being a liar, and that was what dictated his identity for the next few hours.

That, and the skirt he was wearing, that kind of made the main differentiation between Gerard and Gee, that and the skate park he found his feet almost gravitating to, because Gee was welcome there - to talk to Frank at any time and Gerard was still stuck miles behind, laughing awkwardly as the guy drew pictures of his dick in class for their teacher to mark, because as weird as it was to say, Gee and Gerard were worlds away.

And maybe that was just why Gerard liked being Gee so much, because maybe it was Gee that was his coping method these days: throwing himself into the world of the cute punk girl with the skirt that was probably too short and the stuffed bra that he still felt crazy weird wearing, but Gee had Frank Iero calling her cute and giving her compliments, and sometimes Gerard even wished that he'd been born as Gee and not as Gerard.

Because Gee didn't seem to have any concerns or troubles - no shitty brothers, no messed up sexuality, and no lot to ruin her life, and all she did have was a mutual attraction to Frank Iero, as she had been told, a very pretty face.

If Gee and Gerard were like twins, then Gerard was most definitely always the worse off one, and he wasn't quite sure how he felt yet, being second best to himself.

"Gee?" Gerard broke out of his thoughts, out of himself, and out of his identity, remembering the skirt hugging his thighs and the lipstick heavy on his lips, because he was Gee right now, and that was Frank Iero calling him over, and for that grin, Gerard- Gee was prepared to lie for a thousand years, and perhaps even kill 'Gerard' off completely, because he would kill himself over some stupid fucking straight boy, that just happened to be the cutest asshole.

Maybe Mikey was right after all.

-

"I'm still sorry about the other day." Frank exhaled, the two of them having made their way to somewhere more quiet, which luckily didn't nearly smell quite as much of catshit as last time, which was a well-welcomed improvement. "I'm an asshole, I just... I didn't expect to care about people, let alone make 'friends' with them, but there's something about you that I like, I mean - it's clear that you're just so much more than a pretty face, which of course you totally still are, but-"

"Shut up." Gee announced, blushing a little as 'she' pulled lips coated lips into an awkwardly forced smile. "It's okay, Frank - honestly. We're okay, totally fine. I wouldn't have made the effort to walk across town and do see you if we weren't - I can promise you that."

"So what did you make the effort to walk all the way across town to see me for?" Frank asked, a smirk breaking his lips as the serious tone of the conversation disappeared within mere instants, and maybe it was just better like that - forgetting. It seemed like Frank was fine with it, even if Gee doubted that the words would ever leave his head, he reckoned that he'd at least try, for Frank, because maybe, Mikey was right, and he was stupid enough to actual put that asshole first.

"To forget." Gee sighed as Gerard slipped through for a moment or two, forcing himself to meet Frank's gaze to remind himself who he was right now and who he was with. "My family's being assholes right now, and I need to clear my head, and talk to someone that I actually like."

"I feel honoured." Frank smirked a little, leaning his head back against the wire fence, leaving Gee to mimic his actions and almost awkwardly so, pulling his knees to his chest as his legs spread themselves as his did so. "Fuck, you have really nice thighs, you know?"

"I... uhh..." Gee found himself gazing almost dumbfoundedly at his thighs as he struggled to find any appeal in the two hunks of fat. "They're thighs? Like I uhh... thank you, but I just?"

"I'm totally indulging myself in the pleasure of imagining those fucking thighs of yours wrapping around my waist as I fuck you until you're screaming out my name, because I want that - I need that." Frank lit a cigarette, attempting to clear his head of the boner material he'd just polluted it with, however, it clearly wasn't working, as within moments, the sixteen year old continued into Gee's stunned silence.

"And you're wearing that fucking plaid skirt - the one that drives me crazy because you don't see how it rides up a little as you walk, but I do, and oh dear god, it's all I've ever wanted from life, because you're too die for, Gee, and I can't have you, and that's so stupid, because it only ever seems to make me want you more. To want you pinned down against my mattress, caught up in my sheets - shirt pulled over your head and utterly fucking naked apart from that fucking skirt, because oh man, that fucking skirt. I want to kiss you everywhere and I want to make you moan - I want to make you scream and I want, I want you, Gee, and I, just, I want to kiss you-"

"Frank, stop..." Gerard finally stuttered out, eyes open wide as he struggled to process the filth that Frank had just filled his brain with, and then flooding his mind with imagines of him mum, because fuck, that skirt and a boner, and Frank was not a good combination, and oh fuck the skirt, dear god, the skirt, oh fuc-

"I want to kiss you." Frank repeated - his words quieter, yet much more meaningful this time, and it only then did Frank's confession really hit the seventeen year old boy in a skirt that was driving a straight boy crazy.

"You want to kiss me?" Gerard repeated it like the concept was utterly preposterous, and to him right then, really it was, because he was still stuck half way between Gee and Gerard and even kind of felt like throwing up right then, but was probably just about the worst thing he could have possibly done.

"Of course I do." Frank exclaimed, his voice nervous, and everything kind of floaty, like this wasn't really happening and the possibility of him kissing a girl and just leaving at that wasn't even at all possible, but of course, things only got far more intriguing out of Frank's head, because, truth be told, 'Gee' wasn't a girl, no matter how much, for Frank's sake, he wanted himself to be.

"Don't tell me you've never kissed anyone before." Frank stopped as a possibility, which he deemed impossible caught up to him in the silence. "Oh fuck off, you're beyond beautiful - you're fucking perfect, seriously what the fuck?"

"I don't know, I guess, no one's ever seen me like that before." Gerard admitted, deciding that it was better that he went for the vague generalised answer, rather than 'oh yeah, it seems that I'm far more attractive in the gender that I wasn't born as', because that would quite possibly raise a few queries.

"Well, I guess everyone's fucking blind then." Frank sighed, shaking his head, before meeting the seventeen year old's eyes, and stopping himself for a moment, because he didn't do just kissing, yet somehow with Gee, everything seemed to matter, and not in the way that it used to, because it wasn't about scoring, but more about guessing what Gee's lips would taste like, and then yearning to know the answer.

"I guess." Gerard blushed, attempting to push his gaze down, only to have Frank catch it, their gazes locking as the younger of the two leaned closer, his hand resting upon Gerard's cheek.

"Can I kiss you?" Frank found himself asking a question that he never really had before, and within the amount of time he'd spent worrying over kissing Gee, he usually would have finished with someone by now, and oh fuck, this wasn't him, but maybe, just maybe, this was what he wanted to be, because Gee was definitely different somehow - in a good way, yet he just couldn't quite pinpoint as to how.

Gee only nodded, words catching in his throat: soon to be ignored and forgotten as Frank's lips connected with his and everything seem to fade away in the taste of nicotine and lips heavy against both of them, and he didn't even worry that he'd applied to much anymore, even when it matter, because maybe the way Frank took charge seem to make every little worry of his disappear, and as the sixteen year old was sucking against his bottom lip, he could barely even remember his own name.

"That was nice." The silence had lasted far too long after they'd pulled away, and stared off into the distance as they sorted through their own thoughts, because Frank couldn't quite handle that he was okay with just kissing and Gerard couldn't quite handle that he'd just kissed Frank Iero.

"Yeah, it was." Frank exhaled, turning to face the seventeen year old, who broke into laughter as soon as they made eye contact, and as his gaze fell upon Frank's lips. "What?" He exclaimed, blushing a little, and generally looking stupidly cute whilst being embarrassed.

"You've got lipstick." Gerard gestured towards Frank's lips and the red lipstick mark that he'd created.

"Fuck." Frank exhaled, rubbing it off with the back of his hand, and then turning to Gerard for the seventeen year old's opinion. "Gone?"

"Mostly yeah."

"Fuck it." Frank sighed, throwing his head back against the fence. "It's weird, actually caring about someone, and I care about you a lot, you know?"

"I care about you too." Gerard stuttered out almost instantaneously, wondering if this was the friend-zoned way of saying 'I love you'.

"So I don't want this to fuck us up, because I'm a whore and you're a virgin, and I still want us to be friends, and maybe something more, but if you don't want to, then I guess I'll have to respect that, it's just.... Gee?" Frank stood up, leaving the seventeen year old sat dumbfounded at the information Frank Iero was providing him with just so casually.

"Yeah, what?" He finally managed to push any kind of response out.

"I really liked kissing you, and I'd like to do it again." Frank admitted, the confession breaking everything about who he was and what he stood for, but when he cared about someone like this, maybe that was okay. "Like really.... only, maybe next time? How about you don't wear quite as much lipstick, huh?"

"Next time?" Gerard smirked, knowing instantly that this would be something he'd be bragging to Lindsey about within seconds.

"Yeah, I mean, if you want-"

"Of course I do, asshole."

"Whatever, virgin."

"Shut it. Whore."

-

"I never knew that being called a whore could ever be so flattering." Frank exclaimed, spliff held almost dangerously in an entirely clumsily manner between his fingers, as he and Bert sat in the latter of the two's back garden, discussing girls, and especially the mystical 'Gee' that Frank never seemed to shut up about.

"You're such a lovesick puppy." Bert found himself rolling his eyes at the boy sat in his bedroom, who he only vaguely recognised as his best friend at this point. "Whatever happened to you being the subject Taylor Swift's next hit single?"

"Yeah, whatever." Franks smirked a little to himself, foreseeing a valuable pun opportunity arising. "The haters gonna hate, hate, hate."

"Yeah, yeah, and I'm going to shake, shake, shake you out of my house."

"How would that even work?" Frank asked, pulling the spliff up to his lips and drowning his sorrows and stupid feelings in something that would ensure they were forgotten and sharpish.

"Fuck off." Bert sighed, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his arms on them. "What is it with you and that girl though? You've barely known her like two weeks and you're fucking head over heels for her?"

"We kissed like once." Frank sighed, absolutely devastated by the fact that Bert McCracken did not come with a mute button, because he'd be making awfully good use of that right now if he could.

"She didn't want you to fuck her, and you didn't, and you still talk to her - it's like you actually give a shit!" Bert exclaimed, eyes opened wide in expression of his astonishment.

"Maybe I do give a shit." Frank pulled his gaze away from his best friend's, awaiting the laughter, and receiving nothing but a silence that could put anyone on edge. "Maybe I actually care about her, wouldn't that be interesting?"

"Who are you are what have you done with Frank Iero?" Bert exclaimed, bursting into a fit of laughter, leaning against his best friend and generally insuring that the shorter of the two was extremely uncomfortable and moderately pissed off. "I know this girl - she'll be at this party that we're gonna go to tomorrow night, and she definitely want to fuck you. She's hot, but kind of stupid and will go for assholes like you."

"Maybe I don't want to be an asshole." Frank pondered, his words perhaps more of a question than an actual commitment, but Bert took it as such and far too seriously, regardless of Frank's tone.

"Seriously, you're freaking me out here. What's next? Joining the fucking scouts?" Bert rolled his eyes, chuckling a little, whereas Frank kept dead silent, biting down on his bottom lip as he glanced at his best friend for a moment, and then thought of Gee - this girl that he barely knew, yet cared about far too much entirely.

"Shut up. Maybe I like her. Maybe I really want to fuck her, and maybe I'm just making gaining her trust in order for her to do so." Frank added, and Bert seemed to entirely calm down after the words that served as some sort of reassurance that his best friend hadn't been replaced by some good, law, and morally abiding citizen.

"If she doesn't want to fuck you now, then she's not going to later." Bert shook his head, rolling his eyes, and smirking perhaps just a little too much. "Looks like you got friend zoned, Iero."

"She's a virgin." Frank broke out with what was probably supposed to be a secret, but it secretly shut Bert up alright.

"Wow, you're going to take her v-card and ruin her life - shallow, Iero. But totally you, I'd say go for it." Bert grinned to himself, stealing frank's spliff and taking a drag and mumbling something to himself about 'motherfuckers' and 'weed'.

"I'm not going to ruin anybody's life, I mean - I don't intend to." Frank sighed, throwing his back, gently, against the wall. "You’re right. What am I doing? Maybe I should just do something crazy again. Hey, there's the kid that I sit next to in my new art class who got freaked out when I drew a picture of my dic-" Frank didn't even get to finish before Bert burst in

"Are you serious, oh my god? Sounds like he hasn't even seen his own before." Bert added, eyebrows raised, and generally intrigued to hear about anything other than how lovestruck Frank was for 'Gee', because seriously, although he was Frank's best friend, there was only so much of that shit that he could listen to before he went properly fucking insane.

"Yeah, sounds like the kind of guy that doesn't even jack off... like wow, I should totally like suck him off in the totally unlocked art cupboard or something, and then we'd both get into shit, and dear god, he'd be so freaked out, I would fucking piss myself laughing - totally would ruin his life."

"You're gonna go all Fag Iero on me, huh?" Bert smirked, eyebrows raised, making a joke that Frank didn’t quite find nearly as funny.

"Shut up. You know that I'm not a faggot." Frank bit down on his lip, forcing back thoughts that didn't belong in his head anymore of a time that he'd dedicated his whole life to forgetting.

"That's not what people said in middle school, is it, huh?" Bert smirked, perhaps just a little too amused at how uncomfortable his friend got at the subject, but thought nothing more of it than an embarrassing thing to tease him with.

"I fuck with and fuck girls like I get paid for it, and hell, I might as well get paid because I do a damn good job - I like girls, Bert." Frank rolled his eyes, trying his best to act cool, despite the blush desperately hugging his cheeks and refusing to let go.

"Oh sure."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Frank retorted, eyebrows raised, yet panicking inside, and not doing the best job of hiding it.

"You're going fucking soft - I don't want a fag as a best friend, Iero." And those words fucking hurt, because maybe, years ago, Frank had heard them before.

"I'm not-"

"Yeah, prove it. Fuck this 'Gee' by the end of next week and that’ll be proof enough." 

Silence.

And his heart stopped, and then started again, because he didn't want to, but he had to.

"And what do I get out of that?"

"Her v-card and to keep your best friend - you basically haven't got a choice."

-


	7. I'd Probably Date You If You Washed Your Hair

"Lindsey, seriously, I cannot cope with this, like he actually wants to kiss me again, and I just, wow, this is like everything I've ever wanted, you know?"

Gerard exclaimed, sat at some crappy lunch table with his old friend as he propped at his generic school meal shit as he contemplated just how safe to eat it was - he reckoned that perhaps not eating it would do his insides a favour, because he really wouldn't even feed his worst enemy this, not that Gerard really had a worst enemy, well other than Gabe, but Gabe was just a jealous piece of shit, and he reckoned that he could deal with that.

"That's actually kind of shallow, you know, like wow, do you do actually not have any other goals in life, like ones that don't revolve around Frank Iero?" Lindsey asked, pulling her gaze up from her phone, but only momentarily, of course, because she had some asshole asking for nudes that she needed to ensure knew that he was a piece of misogynistic shit - you know, just the daily grind.

"Yeah, when you put it like that, and when I think about I mean, I actually, I actually kind of don't, like wow... I am really shallow, but I actually just couldn't give a fuck because I've kissed Frank Iero and you haven't." He pulled his face into a ridiculous smirk and Lindsey considered giving up on her best friend entirely, but that wouldn't be particularly good for anyone's mental stability.

"Honestly, I'd rather not kiss Frank Iero, but whatever floats your boat, Gee." She sighed, pocketing her cellphone and turning her full attention to her best friend in a gesture that she knew she was going to end up regretting. "Also by the way, your brother and his friends are staring at you, like in the way that it's obvious that they're talking about you."

"Thanks for the confidence boost." Gerard rolled his eyes, pushing the tray of 'dog food' aside and throwing his head down against the table, burying his face in his forearms and wishing for a world in which this wasn't a shitty school lunch table and actually his bed. "It was well appreciated."

"Oh, you're very welcome." Lindsey sighed, trying her best not to make it obvious that she'd taken notice of Mikey's little group all turning around and staring at the dark haired mess that stank of coffee sat opposite her, but then again, they weren't exactly doing anything in the manner of secrecy, so why should she.

"Which friends are they? Just wondering, you know, like who hates me and what I should be threatening Mikey with tonight." Gerard murmured, his voice muffled against the table, and Lindsey couldn't help roll her eyes and even laugh a little at the fact that Frank Iero had unknowingly kissed this socially inadequate, sleep deprived mess, napping on the lunch table with his hair sticking up in all directions.

Really, either Frank was really fucking stupid, or Gerard did a really good girl impersonation. Despite the fact that he was a drama student, Lindsey still reckoned the former was the more likely of the two.

"Just Pete and Ray. No girls today, Mikey's let his game down, really." She smirked, attempting to make Gerard laugh enough to move his head up from the table, because really, people other than Mikey were starting to stare.

"Yes, or maybe he's gay..." Gerard mumbled into his arm, and Lindsey simply cut to the chase and slapped him, which definitely did the trick, releasing a pissed off grunt from the seventeen year old.

"What the fuck was that for?" He moaned, pulling his head up, and as Lindsey gestured, he turned to notice that in fact, none other than Alicia Simmons - Mikey's latest thing was walking straight past his brother, and over to their, largely abandoned table. She wanted to talk to Lindsey, obviously, Gerard doubted that despite dating his brother, she even knew his name at all.

"Hey, is it alright if I sit here, and like talk for a minute? Like, you're Gerard Way, you're Mikey's brother, aren't you?" She spoke in an overly friendly tone, and Gerard probably would have told her to fuck off if the fact that she'd actually bothered to learn his name didn't enthral him quite so much.

"Yeah, sure, he is." Lindsey answered for her best friend, as within ten seconds, the greasy haired seventeen year old was already making his utter social inadequacy more than painfully apparent. "I'm Lindsey Ballato. Alicia, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She nodded, sitting beside Lindsey, which was a decision most likely made to the fact that Gerard hadn't stopped staring at her since she'd approached them, which would really freak anyone out, but Gerard was far too tired and pissed off to care. "Mikey's, well, he's being really weird, he's being really weird with me, and I just don't get why?"

"That's odd, I mean, Mikey's not the best with women, but he's not an asshole." Lindsey began, stealing a glance in Mikey's direction, and he really seemed to have shut up the very moment that his girlfriend walked right past him and headed for his brother.

"Yeah, I haven't done like anyone thing wrong either, I just, I hope we're okay, but he won't stop ignoring me and just saying weird things, like actually really weird-"

"He thinks you fucked Pete." Gerard rolled the truth off his tongue in a terribly nonchalant fashion: having only done so due to the fact that he was getting tired of hearing her voice and really, this was something Mikey just hadn't shut up about over the past few days.

"What? I never, I-" She exclaimed, making it overly apparent that she was actually horrified by the accusation, despite the fact that Gerard wouldn't be all that surprised if it was true; she was Mikey's kind of girl, and by that, Gerard meant that she was as much of a whore as he was.

"Well, he's certainly been going on about it a lot lately. I didn't think he actually minded at first, but then he got all self-conscious and bratty about the fact that he's worried that you might think Pete's better in bed than he is - I stopped listening at that point." Gerard continued, and Lindsey couldn't help but bite back a smirk at just how prepared he was to bitch about his brother to his brother's girlfriend, but then again, the guy who was prepared to cross-dress to get some asshole to pay him any attention could barely be anything but a hypocrite in a situation like this.

"So, wait he tells you like everything?" She asked, grin widening as she leaned and Gerard prepared himself for sudden death, because interacting with the female species (other than Lindsey, and his mum, sometimes) was most definitely not on his agenda in life.

"Pretty much, yeah." Gerard shrugged, pushing his fringe back, behind his ear.

"Well, if you tell me a couple of things then I'll like owe you for life." She pleaded, pushing her cleavage forward as she spoke in a manner that Gerard's sexuality allowed him to completely ignore. Anyway, it wasn't like he needed persuading to ruin his brother's life in the first place.

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

"Has he cheated on me? Does he think I'm bad in bed? And how should I ruin his life if I ever need to?" And really, Lindsey tried her best not to break into a fit of laughter at the stereotypical nature of her questions.

"No, but he's thought about it. No worse than he is. The last one, hmm... he wet the bed when he was thirteen, also one time he totally forgot to clear his history and he was jerking off to Five Nights At Freddy's porn - if you don't know what that is, you don't want to, okay?"

"Oh Jesus Christ..." It seemed it was Lindsey's turn to face plant the table.

"Thank you, I guess." She blushed a little, and Gerard had the awkward suspicion that she did know what Five Nights At Freddy's porn was, which was certain a peculiar situation, because that wasn't just knowledge you were born with for sure. "You're really sweet, actually. You know I'd probably date you if you washed your hair."

Both Gerard and Lindsey broke into a fit of uncontrollable laughter at that, and Alicia seemed eternally confused.

"Really?" Gerard smirked, rolling his eyes at Lindsey who made some hand gestures that really weren't PG-13. "Shame I'm gay then, huh?"

"Oh, Mikey never told me that." She added, brows furrowing a little as she pulled her gaze down, blushing a little, and Gerard couldn't help but feel sorry for her on the basis that she was dating his brother alone.

"Yeah, Mikey doesn't like me, so he doesn't tend to talk about me."

"Well, I think you're nicer than Mikey if I'm honest." She admitted, and Lindsey couldn't help but smirk at that, because if Gerard wasn't gay then this ship would have fucking sailed already, and seriously, Gerard would do anything to piss off his brother.

"Yeah, well dump him then. You can do so much better - go actually fuck Pete or something, that'll really piss him off."

-

"You look like you're in need of a spliff, dude."

Mikey perked up at the voice on the bench beside him, and really, it was only the youthful quality of the speaker that hadn't sent the fifteen year old sprinting off as fast as he can already. That and the fact that he had like one friend left, because he'd totally messed everything up with Alicia and Pete, which was really doing some serious to damage to his ego, and he could not have that.

But as Mikey looked up to see the stranger offering him free substances of an illegal nature, he reckoned things only got worse, because dear fucking lord that was Frank Iero, and he didn't quite want to ruin his brother's life entirely, by shouting out something that he shouldn't, but oh dear god, in this mood he was in now, he was quite tempted.

"I'm Frank." The sixteen year old needlessly introduced himself as he passed Mikey the spliff: the fifteen year old putting it between his lips and within a few clicks of his lighter, lighting the thing himself.

"Mikey." He introduced himself and the boy his brother was dressing up as a girl to try and get with nodded in acknowledgement.

"You look pretty stressed out, dude. Care to share? A problem shared is a problem-"

"Don't even start - you sound like my mother, and really I would rather not think about her right now - I've already got enough shit to worry about." Mikey sighed, letting out a half-hearted chuckle that caused Frank to raise his eyebrows in skepticism. "I think my girlfriend’s cheated on me and I think it was with my best friend and both of them are being weird with me, and then my girlfriend just started to talking to my brother and he fucking hates me like hell, so he's probably just about ruined my chances with her entirely."

"And that's exactly why I don't do girlfriends." Frank chuckled, throwing his head back as he blew out smoke rings.

"What? You're gay?" Mikey exclaimed, getting the wrong idea entirely.

"No, I mean relationships, I do girls, lots of them, but I don't date them, I... uhh... I'm straight, I think anyway."

"You think?" Mikey raised his eyebrows at that one, because no way was Gerard allowed to get his perfect fantasy when Alicia was probably going to break up with him imminently.

"Well, we can never be entirely sure until we try everything, can we?" Frank smirked, gazing up at the sky as he tried to imagine a universe where his supposed best friend hadn't put him in such a messed up predicament involving the one girl that he actually gave a damn about. "If it's any condolence, my best friend, Bert, is being a real fucking douche lately."

"Oh, how so?" Mikey asked, wondering just how much Gerard would hate him when he told him about his encounter with Frank, because dear god, his brother would be jealous as fuck and that would most certainly be amusing, and could possibly even make up for this mess with Pete and Alicia.

"It's a real fucking long story, and it's cold out."

"You can come back to mine, if you want - my mum's not back from work until like ten tonight, and my brother won't cause us any trouble - I promise."

Or perhaps signing Gerard’s death warrant was all the more amusing - either way, Mikey was winning the worst brother of the year award.

-

Of course, Mikey was entirely wrong about the fact that his brother wouldn't be any trouble, because the moment he vengefully dragged Frank Iero through his front door, and he came to see that not only was Gerard sat in the living room, so was Lindsey, and Alicia, and oh dear god, Mikey was starting to question this idea of his, because pissing off Gerard and getting him to hide in his room was what he was going for here, and not this, when both Lindsey and Alicia were involved, fuck.

"Well, it seems that my brother has already occupied the living room..." Mikey muttered to Frank, who stood kind of awkwardly beside him, on looking the three that hadn't quite noticed them yet with inquisition, and instantly noting that the girl in pigtails was in fact Lindsey Ballato. The guy looked kind of familiar too, but Frank just couldn't place it and shrugged it off instead.

"Oh, Mikey, nice to see you again, huh? Are you perhaps not going to be a dickhead for five minutes, maybe?" Alicia was the first to notice Mikey's presence, and with a tone like that, it didn't take long before both Lindsey and Gerard had looked up from the laptop in front of them - little did Mikey know, they were laughing at his internet history, but even Gerard thought that to be kind of irrelevant when he realised that the guy Mikey was with was none other than Frank fucking Iero, and he was actually going to kill his brother at this rate.

However, luckily for everyone, Gerard had opted for the no make up and extremely oversized black hoodie and sweatpants look for today, which pretty much ensured he looked nothing like the female counterpart Frank was familiar with; it wasn't like Frank was actually paying all that much attention to the face when Gerard had such a short skirt on, anyway.

"Now that you've screwed Pete, are you moving onto my brother now or what?" Mikey snapped back in response, ignoring Frank temporarily and leaving him to awkwardly to stand there and gather that this was the girlfriend that his new acquaintance had mentioned earlier.

"Yeah, your brother's gay, isn't he, Mikey? You seem to be more in the closet about that than he is, huh? You fucking told me that he was straight, you know - why? Stop being such a fucking asshole, Mikey, because we're seriously over." Alicia smirked as Lindsey high-fived her for that one, and Gerard just kind of sat there, hiding his face and doing everything he could to ensure that Frank Iero didn't notice him.

However, maybe Frank did perk up, just a little at the mention of this guy's sexuality - hell he didn't even know him, but ever since Bert had brought it up the other day, everything from middle school had seriously come back to haunt him, and dear god, it was hell.

"Also I didn't fuck Pete, but now I'm single, I might as well, huh?" Gerard reckoned that if she was going to slay Mikey like that, then maybe Gerard could tolerate Alicia Simmons, anyway, Lindsey seemed to like her enough, but Lindsey was kind of just nicer to most people.

"Fuck you, Alicia." Mikey rolled his eyes, attempting to turn away, only for a second voice to stop him.

"Leave her the fuck alone." Gerard spoke up for the first time, pulling his gaze over to meet Mikey's, but getting lost along the way - in Frank's, to be precise, and Frank couldn't deny that despite his messy appearance, Mikey's brother definitely had a really pretty face, even if he looked like he'd just been dragged through a hedge backwards. Frank might even go as far as to say that it worked for him, but Frank wasn't gay, he just had eyes and knew what a pretty face looked like.

"Yeah, whatever, leave us the fuck alone. Frank and I are going upstairs." Mikey gestured Frank towards the stairs, and the sixteen year old struggled to pull his gaze away from this brother of Mikey's: there was just something about him that Frank both loved and couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Good for you, Lindsey, Alicia, and I are the reason that you should probably consider clearing your Internet history, brother, dear." Gerard pulled his lips into a perfect little smirk, and Mikey had to be restrained by Frank before he ended up punching the living room wall, and really, Mrs Way, would not have been pleased.

Needless to say, this was entirely more than Frank bargained for when he agreed to come over with some guy he'd just offered a spliff to out of sympathy, but at the very least it gave him something other to think about than Bert and Gee and just which friendship to ruin.

"You're showing my girlfriend my porn history- I, what the fuck, Gerard?" Gerard of course only broke down in giggles in response, and Lindsey had to pull him up before he fell off the sofa after maybe just a little too much to drink, courtesy of Alicia.

It was an all new experience for Gerard: having a whopping two friends, and really one of them was only here and talking to him to get back at his brother, but he didn't particularly mind, because he probably hated Mikey just as much as she did - it wasn't exactly that hard of a thing to do.

"Ex-girlfriend, remember?" Alicia added, and this time Mikey really did punch the wall, and there was absolutely no way that he was going to blame that on Gerard when his knuckles had started bleeding, and oh shit, there was no way Gerard was going to be conned into taking his fifteen year old brother to the ER - he could bleed out and die for all the seventeen year old cared.

"Yeah, uhh.. we'll just be upstairs, the first aid kit-" Frank stuttered out, guiding the guy he barely knew up the stairs of his house, knuckles bleeding and swearing like fuck.

"In the bathroom." Gerard finished for him, turning away and just catching a look from Lindsey. "What?" He added, tone hushed.

"Stop fucking flirting with him, Gerard."

"I'm not flirting!" Gerard exclaimed, his words a little slurred and his tone louder than intended, because oh fuck, Frank most definitely did hear that.

-

Frank sighed aloud, sat beside Mikey on his bed, as the fifteen year old held his knuckles against an icepack wrapped in a tea towel, wasting time away as he simply prayed that they'd stop bleeding soon. This really wasn't what Frank was expecting when he agreed to come over at all.

"I'd offer you a smoke or something, but your hand..." Frank trailed off, his gaze falling to Mikey's knuckles and cutting his words off completely, because Mikey didn't care at all, and he was only being annoying, and really social interaction was so much easier with Bert, because even if he was an asshole about it, he still never shut up and did all the small talk for you.

"Yeah, the wall probably deserved it anyway." They both laughed at that one, Mikey shaking his head a little as the last awkward trails of laughter faded away. "Is it just me that thinks that Alicia was a little harsh on me, like what the hell did my brother say to her, because that's really not her, and she's being weird to me about this whole thing."

"Was just a little harsh, but I really don't know the whole story and therefore, I wouldn't say my opinion was at all that valid. Looks like there's some real fucking tension between you and your brother, though."

Mikey nodded, sighing a little. "Gerard just seems to always be so full of himself and seriously his ego- fuck, it's just that he seems to think that he's the boss of me just because he's older by two years." Mikey, of course, being a teenager, had to hate anyone older than by approximately six months, because they were all too authoritarian - he could make exceptions for drug dealers and people that just looked cool, though.

"How old's he?" Frank asked, just as a simple casual question and not because he was perhaps far too genuinely interested in this brother of Mikey's than he should have been.

"Seventeen." Mikey pushed his glasses a little back up his nose. "I'm fifteen. What about you?"

"Sixteen." Frank answered; biting back the grin that came with the fact that age wouldn't make it weird to talk to this brother of Mikey's. It wasn't like he fancied the guy or anything, he was just far too interested and genuinely intrigued by his existence. "What's with the whole 'gay thing' - like Alicia going on about how you didn't tell her?"

"I told her that he was straight, well, I just... it's weird, like people look at you weird, people think of you differently because of it, and I don't want her to think of me as the guy with the fag brother and not just Mikey, I... I just..."

"I don't think of you like that." Frank filled in the silence with comforting yet true confession. "I don't think it matters, really... I, I'm not gay, but it's kind of weird how it's taboo like that, and shit."

"Mhmm..." Mikey nodded in agreement, his gaze spaced off elsewhere, but still listening to the sixteen year old.

"My friend called me a faggot the other day as an insult, and it just makes me uncomfortable, like, it's just weird how sexuality is an insult..." Frank came to the conclusion that maybe he was talking just a little too much about Gerard, and maybe Mikey would start to notice soon, and even god forbid, mention something to his brother.

"I mean, he's technically closeted, but like, he kind of just dropped it on mum like a bombshell the other week when she tried to give us the sextalk, which was not fun." Mikey's face contorted into an expression of disgust as he began to recall the memories in greater detail.

"Just what like 'oh yeah I get fucked in the ass on a regular basis, by the way'?" Frank chuckled a little at that, wondering just how any mother could have reacted to a statement like that.

"Yeah, funnily enough, he's actually still a virgin, and I'm the whore, so..."

"Oh..." Frank paused, perhaps for too long at that, because something like that didn't quite click in his head. "I just... I didn't think still would be, like... he's not ugly."

"Yeah, but he's an asshole." Mikey rolled his eyes, laughing a little as he spoke.

"Those guys like asshole, though." Frank reminded his newfound awkward acquaintance/friend, as he ensured that he remembered the difference between those guys and himself, because he wasn't gay... he just had an abnormal interest in homosexuality it seemed.

"Now that's a good one. But he's just had confidence issues for most of his life and yeah, Lindsey's like his only friend as well, which I must admit is a bit sad, and maybe that's good that Alicia adds his grand total of friends up to two, but I'd rather she could do that while still being my girlfriend, and fuck, it's not like I can even accuse him of stealing my girlfriend, because he's so fucking gay I just want to punch a wall again-"

"Please, don't." Frank sighed, not wanting to go through his badly administered first aid again.

"Yeah, I'll try my best, but really, he needs to put himself out there, like he's kind of sad. He should just go to a fucking gay bar or something, I just don't care, but he needs to get the fuck out of other people's lives and stop messing them up, like fuck, I... how hard is it just to make friends and leave other people alone?"

"I'll be his friend if you want." Frank wasn't quite sure if he was joking or not, and it was only the shake of Mikey's head that decided that he was.

"No, you're my friend - it seems I'm in need after she's pissed off, like Ray can barely ever come over because his parents don't like me, and Pete will side with Alicia because I'm pretty sure that they did fuck, and ughh. I need you to come over and be my friend so I don't end up throwing my head through a wall."

"I can do that. Bert's being an asshole right now, anyway."

"Well that's good - I never knew all of this could come out a spliff, huh?"

And Mikey just had to keep it in that he was mainly doing this to ruin Gerard’s life, and make his asshole of a brother sorry for 'stealing' (but in a homosexual way) his girlfriend.

Maybe, just maybe, Mikey was a hypocrite to call Gerard sad.

-


	8. Conveniently, Gerard Doesn't Die In This Chapter

"You're not even trying." Gerard tried his best not to get involved with Frank Iero, especially as Gerard, but it was rather evident that it wasn't working, and it almost felt like Frank was pissing him off just to force Gerard to talk to him, because there was something terribly infuriating about Frank's random splatters of red paint over his sheet of paper.

"Well, you're not wrong there." Frank flashed the seventeen year old a toothy grin as he flicked paint in his direction, causing Gerard to grow bright red as he came to realise that a spot of red paint had landed upon his cheek, and Frank Iero, being the asshole he was, was of course laughing his fucking ass off.

"Why? Just why?" Gerard exhaled loudly, attempting to wipe the paint off his cheek, but smudging it the process and effectively making the mark worse.

"Because I'm an asshole - haven't you figured that out yet, Gerard?" He chuckled, raising his eyebrows as the seventeen year old continued to try and rub the paint smudge from his cheek. "It's not going to come off, sweetie."

Gerard stopped for a moment, looking at Frank and furrowing his eyebrows. "Don't fucking call me that."

"Well, you were the one who was perfectly happy to flirt with me when your brother brought me over the other day." Frank smirked, watching as Gerard stood there dumbfounded for a moment: surprised that Frank had recognised him at all, but glad that it wasn’t Gee that Frank had recognised him as.

"I wasn't flirting with you." Gerard decided that lying was probably the best and only thing he could do in this situation.

"Oh sure." Frank rolled his eyes, turning back to his canvas and painting a rather crude and badly drawn dick in red paint.

"I swear you're actually obsessed with your own dick." Gerard shook his head as he turned back to his own work and tried his best to just ignore Frank and continue, but it really looked like that wasn't working.

"Seems like you are too, Mr Flirt." Frank fell into a fit of giggles, only for Gerard to give him a gentle shove, which Frank took total, serious offense to, of course. "Asshole."

"Yeah, that's my prediction as to what you'll draw next - your asshole." Gerard rolled his eyes, trying his best to return to his own work for the second time, but of course, failing once again, because Frank Iero was one stubborn motherfucker.

"Yeah, but I'd rather draw your asshole. Bet it's really fucking pretty, huh?" Frank winked at him, leaving Gerard dumbfounded and about to facepalm the desk and get concussion and probably die as well, but thankfully that didn't happen, because that would be quite inconvenient.

"Yeah, aren't you supposed to be straight?" Gerard reminded him, just wishing that Frank would fuck off before things got awkward or Gerard's dick got a little too excited or something.

"I am many things, Gerard Way - don't underestimate me." Frank smirked, turning back to his work for once, and nonchalantly adding shading and 'depth' to his piece of 'art', and leaving Gerard dumbfounded as he couldn’t help but stare at the sixteen year old and that stupid fucking smirk on his face.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gerard finally broke the silence with a direct and somewhat pissed off question, which of course, still Frank only grinned at. "Seriously, Frank, don't be an asshole here."

"Oh, but why do you care that much if you're not flirting with me, huh?" And that left Gerard blushing more than he ever had before, which Frank couldn't help but count as an achievement: simply just because he enjoyed making people uncomfortable, he didn't actually have feelings for Gerard, or anything - that would just be absolutely ridiculous.

"I care that much because you insist upon talking to me far more than necessary. If you 'don't like me' then why do you do that?" Gerard fell into a smirk at what he hit Frank back with, but of course, Frank Iero would call himself the king of killing people's self-esteem and something as simple as this wasn't going to hold him back.

"Because I like annoying you, and you care far too much, and that's just amusing." Frank had this all planned out and he didn't even glance at Gerard as he spoke, leaving the seventeen year old in a slightly perplexed silence.

"What if I just didn't care? Would you stop talking to me then?" Gerard asked, putting his paintbrush down completely, and long forgetting about the red paint mark on his cheek, and turning to care far too much about Frank fucking Iero.

"Probably not, actually." The sixteen year old sighed out in response, not quite meeting Gerard's gaze and focusing far too hard on his work in an almost ridiculous manner considering who he was and what lay on his canvas in such 'glory'.

"And why's that?" Gerard asked, stepping closer: far too interested and entirely lured on - hoping on every word that Frank said.

"Because you're an interesting person. And you seem to have your life so much more sorted out than I do, and maybe I have to admire that." Frank paused for a second, just to consider looking at Gerard as he spoke, but he couldn't quite gather the courage. "You know who you are - you're the quiet pissed off artist that doesn't really want to make friends beside Lindsey, and you like guys and you're probably got that all figured out too, and you know your brother's an asshole but you're still prepared to put up with him because you care about him, and you don't take any bullshit from anyone, because you know who you are and who you want to be.... whereas, I'm, I'm nothing - nothing at all."

"No. You're Frank Iero, you're the asshole with far too many friends that you don't actually like and you practically live at the skate park. You fuck girls because you don't want to date them, and it makes you happy. And you're far stronger of a person than I'll ever be."

"Don't fucking act like you know everything about me because at least half of that's completely wrong, Gerard!" And that was how Frank snapped, throwing his paintbrush to the ground, and turning to just to storm out, only stopping to catch Gerard's wide eyed gaze momentarily, before he did so.

"Frank!" The seventeen year old cared out after him, but he didn't go after him, because he was scared and so fucking confused, and perhaps that was entirely Frank's intentions all along.

-

"So you've not done it yet?" Bert raised his eyebrows, sat a top a skate ramp with his Frank by his side: the latter of the two staring off into the distance and biting down on his lip out of anxiety and dreading the question Bert had just asked from the very moment Bert had texted him, asking to meet up.

"No..." Frank sighed out, shaking his head, and finding himself nervous for just about the first time in his life as he awaited Bert's reaction, because Frank made himself out to be all ego and faked self-confidence, and fucking girls in order to forget who he really was, but when all that self-confidence faded away, he was left with nothing, and that was what Gerard just didn't seem to get; maybe Gerard Way wasn't the only misunderstood, messed up, special snowflake.

"Why not?" Bert asked - his tone nonchalant, like the concept of this mattering at all had never even passed his mind, and really, nothing showed the contrast between the two friends better than this, because beneath the asshole facade and the lying, Frank really did care.

"Because I didn't want to." Frank exhaled loudly, turning back to Bert as he made a comment that perhaps he really shouldn't have, which then led him to question just what had ever planted the idea in his mind that he wasn't allowed to truly stand up for himself. "Is that fucking okay with you? You know I don't have to do everything you say, McCracken?"

"Chill out, Frank - the whole thing was just a joke." Bert paused for a moment, pushing his hair behind his ears and catching his best friend's gaze. "You know that, don't you, Frank?"

"Felt an awful lot like you were manipulating me into something I didn't want to do, if I'm honest." Frank sighed out, pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, and filling the silence with cigarette smoke and his ninth today: which then caused him to simply brush past any worries that involved him actually getting addicted to the nicotine in those things.

"Yeah, she wouldn't let you fuck her, would she? And you’re butt hurt about it, aren't you, Iero?" Frank froze at that - Bert had taken it entirely too far. "The first girl that didn't let you fuck her - wow. I must ask how you're coping with the loss to your ego?"

"I didn't even fucking ask her, Bert." Frank snapped out, death glaring his best friend, and considering why they were even friends in the first place, because if this was friendship, this was friendship at its absolute worst. "She clearly stated that she didn't want to, and I wasn't going to be a douchebag by continuing to pester her about it."

"Bullshit." Bert grinned to himself, rolling his eyes, but really, Frank didn't see what was so amusing about the situation at all. "Or... if you didn't ask her at all? Yeah? That means you’re a fag."

"I'd rather be gay than be a douchebag." And Frank knew that the words he'd just spoken were something that he'd truly grow to regret, but he'd already gotten fired up, and he wasn’t going to back down now, especially not in front of Bert McCracken.

"So, when am I going to meet your boyfriend, Iero?" Bert smirked, still chuckling along to himself like this was the most hilarious thing he'd even experienced, and really, all he should have been experiencing was a slap across the face.

"I'm not gay, Bert. Just shut the fuck up." Frank sighed out, turning away and continuing to smoke in what he wanted to say was peace, but really, Bert was far too much of a stubborn asshole to ever just drop anything, even after this.

"Yeah, I don't believe you." Bert grinned, rolling his eyes and lighting his own cigarette: still smiling away like this was amusing him far too much indeed.

"Well, that's fucking good for you, isn't it?" Frank pulled his knees up to his chest before sitting cross legged and racking his brain for anything he could use to easily change the subject of conversation, and perhaps even discreetly so, but of course, nothing could ever be quite as easy.

"I was joking, Frank, now come on, seriously, what's up? If you don't want to fuck some girl then clearly something's up. Is it something at home or-"

"Bert, the fucking problem is you." And that really brought the two of them into silence, as Bert began to consider why he'd never even fathomed that Frank would eventually stand up for himself. "You're being an asshole and you're making me feel like shit, are you happy now? Also you're being a homophobic dickhead."

"Why do you even care, Frank? You're not even gay."

"Well, maybe I have a friend that's gay, and maybe he's a nice guy." And Frank reckoned that would be the only time he'd ever need to personally thank Gerard Way for existing.

"And by that do you mean boyfriend?" Bert continued to make it evident that he had no fucking idea as to when a joke had been taken too far.

"No, because I'm not gay, but I care about him as my friend." Frank really didn't know when he and Gerard Way had magically become friends, but he assumed it had to be now at the very least, because he owed him for this one somehow at the very least.

"Well, who is he then?"

"He's closeted. I don't want to fuck that up for him because you'll go around telling everyone."

"So he goes to our school?" Frank nodded at that one, and only because there were hundreds of guys that went to their school and that did barely anything to reveal Gerard's identity. "I won't tell anyone - come on. Look, I promise I'll shut up about this forever if you just tell me who this guy is."

"Swear on your heterosexuality."

"What? Oh fuck, whatever, just tell me."

"Gerard Way."

-

"Gerard, look if you now actually have the chance to interact with Frank on a regular basis as yourself, then why do you still feel the need to dress up like a girl and lie straight to his face?" Lindsey sighed out, sat on her best friend's bed as he compared two miniskirts: holding them over him in the mirror and generally enjoying himself far too much for sanity to be in any way applicable.

"But, Lindsey, these hips don't lie." 

And that was how Lindsey Ballato gave up on her best friend entirely: pulling her knees up to her chest and pulling her cellphone out from her jacket pocket - deciding that the retina killing LED screen would be far more beneficial to her life than Gerard Way's effeminate whining.

"Seriously though, Lindsey - the red skirt or the black one?" Lindsey reckoned that Gerard was more of a girl than she was, and really, it was embarrassing to say the least, but there was no shutting him up unless she did answer his superficial bitch of a question.

"The black one - whatever." She rolled her eyes, her gaze never leaving her cellphone, and Gerard couldn't help but feel personally offended.

"I get the vibe that may you don't quite care as much as I'd like you to."

"Yeah, I wonder where you got that from." At that Gerard, pulled the red skirt on and ran a hand back through his hair in the mirror.

"Are you jealous that I make a prettier girl than you?" And it was the genuine question within Gerard’s voice that had Lindsey just seconds away from slapping him across the face. Thankfully, though, she didn't, as it would require getting up from the bed and that was the kind of commitment that Lindsey just wasn't ready for right now.

"Gerard, you're ruining your life here, and you're not letting anybody help you at all. It's almost like you're utterly adamant upon your own demise, and as your best friend, that's kind of concerning, to say the least." Lindsey sighed out, dropping her cellphone in favour of even the hope of talking any kind of sense into Gerard Way. "Just drop this before you get so fucking hurt, please. Look, you can be friends with Frank as you - he sits next to you in Art and he comes over here occasionally-"

"But that's just not enough, because then I can never kiss him or date him, or actually get anywhere, because he's straight and I'm just a hopeless little faggot." And that was how Gerard Way broke down: mascara running and skirt clad thighs pulled up to chest. "A fucking faggot, aren't I, Lindsey?"

"Gerard, fucking shut up okay? Frank Iero isn't worth your time at all, and look, lying to him like this, you can never really date him at all."

"Why does he have to be straight- fuck?" Gerard threw himself down against the bed: face first into his pillow, and Lindsey silently worried as to how he was going to explain the dark black marks created by eye make up to his mother.

"That's not your fault, look Gerard, you're better than him, you... you should just go out and meet a guy that likes you for you, and will make you happy okay? That'll show him, yeah?" Lindsey grinned at her best friend in enthusiasm, putting aside the fact that she hadn't a clue as to how she was actually going to find a nice guy who would willingly date this emo lump of hormones and miniskirts.

"But I can't change the fact that I lo-"

"Uhh..." Gerard stopped in his tracks as both pairs of eyes looked to the newfound presence in the voice at the door.

"Alicia?" Lindsey ignored the obvious dilemma writhing all around here, and pulled on a smile and gestured for Alicia to come in, which may not have actually been the best of ideas, but there was very little else she could think of in under ten seconds.

"Uhh... Gerard?" Alicia's eyes widened as she shut the door behind them: unable to even take her gaze off her ex-boyfriend's brother, who seemed to wear a miniskirt better than the majority of the female population. "Is there any sort of explanation behind this?"

"Not one that's really worth your time, no." Lindsey answered for her best friend, before the emo lump started mumbling on about Frank Iero, and basically ruined his life to a further extreme.

"Frank Iero." It seemed that Gerard was rather determined to ruin his life regardless.

"Uhh?" Alicia's eyes widened once more as she looked between Gerard and Lindsey: the latter of the two who had pretty much just given up on life at this point and was ready to throw her soul off Mount Everest or something.

"Straight boys are the bane of my existence." Gerard continued, sitting up and glancing across at Alicia like this was a totally normal conversation and that she shouldn't be at all concerned by what she'd just be told.

"He leads a double life as a girl called Gee and Frank is stupid enough to actually fall for it." Lindsey clarified, and then proceeded to wish that she hadn't. "Despite all advice that he shouldn't and that he'll totally fuck up his whole life by doing so, but he's an arrogant, idiotic piece of ass and this is the mess that I'm forced into dealing with on pretty much an everyday basis."

"Frank and I kissed, you know? It was really nice." Gerard mumbled, looking up at the ceiling like he was on a dangerous combination of different illegal substances.

"Gerard, seriously, straight boys are assholes - I can confirm this first hand. Don't even bother. Just go to a fucking gaybar it will make your life so much easier."

"But I love him, you know? He's beautiful, and just perfect-"

"He's an asshole, Gerard." Lindsey rolled her eyes, reading a text off her cellphone and sighing at what she had been forced into calling her best friend. "Look, get changed out this shit, because Mikey's just texted me to say that he's invited Frank over, and as much as your brother hates you, he doesn't want to fuck up your life to that extreme. Mostly because he would suffer a great deal of repercussions, but just pretend that he gives just a little bit of shit about you if it makes you feel better."

"So Mikey's allowed to be best fucking friends with Frank and I'm not even allowed to talk to him, huh?" Gerard rolled his eyes, getting up and wiping the make up off his face in the mirror he had on the wall of his bedroom. 

"You're allowed to be his best fucking friend, yes, but as long as you don't have to lie to him about who you are to do so. Frank and Gerard can be best friends, but you can't go around masquerading as Gee forever - it'll fuck you up, you know that?"

"I'm already fucked up, Lindsey, I thought we had already established that?"

-

"Sorry, my brother's in... with Lindsey and Alicia again... so, you have to put up with three people that hate my guts and probably yours as well just for being friends with me." Mikey reckoned that it probably wasn't the most traditional manner in which to greet someone at your door, but perhaps one that was entirely necessary right now.

"It's okay. Your brother's alright actually. Not that I mean to offend you by that, I'm still your friend and whatever, but he's not a total asshole - at least I don't think so anyway." Frank passed a smile to the younger of the two Way brothers as he walked in, only to be met by the sight of the older Way brother toasting poptarts in the kitchen as Alicia and Lindsey watched, cringed, and prayed that the kitchen wouldn't burn down.

"It's probably best to just ignore them and hope he doesn't start a house fire." Mikey sighed out, before making his way upstairs; Frank however stopped for a moment, just watching, and catching Gerard's eyes, gaining a smile and as he turned away a scream from Lindsey about Gerard burning the poptarts.

Frank knew that there was just something about Gerard that he was missing, but despite all his pondering of said subject, he still couldn't ever quite place it, and he just had the feeling that it was exactly that, which would be his demise someday.

He managed to brush it off, however, and just followed Mikey up the stairs and presumably into his room, up he found himself stopping as he found Mikey stood in the hallway throwing his head against the wall, which was questionable to say the very least.

"Mikey?"

"Don't go In Gerard's room, okay?" Mikey sighed out, pulling away and leading Frank into his own room.

"Why?" Frank furrowed his eyebrows, growing furthermore confused by the moment, and really, it was just exactly this that was driving him to want to go into Gerard's room.

"He left the door open and maybe I saw something that I really did not want to." Mikey exclaimed, cringing a little, before seeming to shake it off entirely and putting in the first album he came across and turning up the volume.

"Gerard's kind of weird... like... not crazy weird, but just, like, there's something intriguing about him weird, do get what I mean?" Frank sighed out, sitting on the floor beside Mikey, who seemed to have rather casually began rolling himself a joint - not that Frank at all cared, of course.

"The only thing at all fascinating about him is his eternal stupidity and just how willing he is to fuck his own life up." Mikey shrugged Frank's question off, and totally didn’t expect the fact that Frank would at all have any thoughts of continuing the conversation at all.

"Surely that's not his fault though?"

"He's a faggot - that's not his fault, yeah, but he can do something about being such a massive fuckhead about it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Frank jerked up a little at that one, unsure as to just how offended he should be, and really, as to whether Mikey meant to be offensive in the first place, but ever since Bert had decided to be a total douchebag, the word 'faggot' had become a rather touchy subject.

"Surely if you're gay, you shouldn't fall in love with boys you know are straight and then ruin not just yours, but everyone you're close to's life over it?"

"Surely you can't chose who you fall in love with?" Frank raised his eyebrows, trying his best to just think of Mikey's words at face value and not feel anything towards Gerard and how he was ruining his life over this straight guy.

"Hmm, I guess." Mikey shrugged, smoking his joint and gazing at the wall behind Frank, and barely paying any attention to Frank at all.

"It's you or me falling in love with a lesbian, don't you think? Like you can't stop being attracted to them... I kind of think I've done that actually, except I don't actually know if she's a lesbian but she shows no desire of being involved with guys at all, so... yeah, it's confusing."

"If she's a lesbian though you can just watch her fuck her girlfriend and that's just as good." Mikey again chose the perfect moment to be an asshole.

"Yeah, but real life isn't porn, and I really doubt that any lesbians are ever going to associate with someone like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You look at girls like fucks and nothing more."

"Yeah, and you don’t' - you, Frank fucking Iero, huh?"

"Okay, maybe I do. Maybe I don't have feelings for girls at all."

-


	9. Frank Iero's Guide To Ruining Your Life In 24 Hours Or Less

"Maybe I don't have feelings for girls at all."

It soon became evident that Mikey had taken Frank's words entirely the wrong way, and was now staring at the sixteen year old liked he'd just confessed to killing a man, but really, it would be absolutely fine if Frank could just laugh it off and tell him that he intended to convey the fact that he was an apathetic asshole, and not a guy that liked it up his asshole, but his words soon stuck in his throat as what Bert had said to him, and then what Bert had said to him and then what he said to Gerard flashed through his mind, and oh fucking hell.

It seemed that the more Frank considered the idea of homosexuality, the more 'appealing', well logical it seemed, and maybe he was a faggot, and maybe he was a little in love with Gerard, but there was no way in hell that he was going to admit that ever, not to himself, and especially not to Mikey Way.

"I.. I meant- I didn't ever mean that I-" Of course just 'laughing it off' was far harder than Frank had expected, and he couldn't help but just blush like hell as Mikey continued to just fucking look at him: that same 'confessed to killing a man' look.

"Are you gay or not Frank?" And when Mikey just put it as directly as that, the fact that Frank just didn't fucking know couldn't be helped at all, and the sixteen year old found his words catching in his throat as it went dry and he considered puking his guts up, but reckoned Mikey wouldn't exactly appreciate the vomit stain on his carpet.

"I-I-I... don't know... I mean, I'm probably like ninety nine percent chance not, but I just, my head's being screwed with, my head's being just- and I- I-... I just don't know anymore." He sighed out, not knowing whether a confession of the calibre was something he should have regretted instantly or not, but really, they were far past the laughing off stage now. "I don't want to be gay, I just, I'm not, I-I-I... just-"

"Who is it?" Mikey was nonchalant and just knew exactly what Frank was trying to convey, and however on earth he'd managed that, it was just something the sixteen year old was thankful for, but then, then there was that matter of who it was, and telling Mikey that his mind was headfucking itself over none other than Mikey's brother - the emo lump who was pretty much the sworn enemy of Mikey himself.

"Err... no one in particular, I just, I fucking just-"

"Frank, I've been through this whole conversation with my brother a few years ago at least six times, so I know how it goes: it's a guy, and you're killing yourself over him, because you're in love and you want to continue believing that you're 'normal' and that you can just fuck girls and ignore this, but I know from Gerard that ignoring it or, trying to, just does nothing but screw you over, Frank, so come on. Don't lie to me."

"I can't tell you who, but you're right, you’re so goddamn right about everything, but I can't be gay, I just, my best friend's a homophobic asshole, and I'm- I'm supposed to be a homophobic asshole, but I... I... my head goddamn hurts thinking about this, and I guess it would be easier just to tell you, I mean, you're my friend and I trust you, but I just can't, and I'm sorry, I'm a fuck up, and I-I-I... I-"

"It's Gerard, isn't it?" Frank's eyes widened in an expression signifying none other than the one thought running rampant through his head right then: 'oh fuck me, you've got in perfectly right but there's still nothing I can do but deny it'.

"No!" Frank exclaimed with entirely too much vigour, and really, Mikey had to try not to just laugh in his face because the guy was an absolutely terrible liar.

Maybe it was better if Frank didn't admit it though, because then Mikey knew that due to Gerard's stubborn demeanour, that the two of them would never get anywhere and his asshole of a brother would never have the satisfaction of being right about something, even if it did involve the worst fucking plan ever.

Maybe Mikey was just selfish to think that, but surely Frank was Mikey's friend, and not Gerard's goddamn boyfriend; Gerard had already screwed that over for himself with the whole 'I'll dress up in a skirt and sexually confuse a straight boy' idea. So really, Mikey could just about support the fact that Gerard didn't deserve this, and that Mikey deserved one goddamn friend who he knew was far too scared to ever screw him over by fucking someone he cared about.

"Good." Mikey finally sighed out, and Frank bit back any kind of response towards the fifteen year's old exasperated answer, because really, the both of them just knew how screwed they both were, except, this time, neither were eager to admit it.

"Yeah, I just, some guy... it's not... it's not real, I just, I'll be over it, I guess." Frank sighed out, pulling his knees up to his chest and Mikey just suppressed how much he hated lying to pretty much his only friend, just for the sake of selfish jealousy and that his only friend, did in fact remain his friend.

"You won't, not really, but you can try, I guess." Mikey sighed out, taking a drag of his joint and trying to wipe away just how screwed everybody was, and how it kind of essentially was his fault.

"I keep drawing guys and... their dic- I... fuck... in art class." Frank finally broke the silence with a somewhat questionable statement, his words catching in his throat a little as he couldn't quite get the truth to make itself known; Mikey's eyes widened a little, but he nodded for Frank to continue regardless. "And Gerard just kind of laughs it at and says I'm not taking it seriously, but I just... my head's messed up and it's screwed over by guys because I can't stop thinking about this it's just up until now, I've managed a far better job of suppressing it."

"I didn't know you had art together." Mikey tried his best to just comment casually and not make it obvious that it was in fact obvious that Frank was hanging himself head over heels for none other than fucking Gerard.

"Yeah, I got kicked out of my last art class and I'm in his now, and he kind of hates me, and I kind of hate him, but whatever, everyone in art class is a pretentious asshole-"

"What about you?" Mikey smirked a little, raising his eyebrows and really just glad that the subtext of the conversation didn't revolve around his brother.

"I can draw if I try - it's an easy A, I guess. Better than like science or something." Frank shrugged it off. "I mean, it's alright, I don't hate Gerard, I just... I guess... it's, just I-"

And by now, Mikey could finish Frank's sentence for him, and there was nothing that the fifteen year old hated quite like that.

-

Gerard couldn't quite help but look forward to the days where he had art class and therefore was 'forced' to sit next to Frank Iero for an hour, and really, he couldn't help but hate himself for that, because at this point, pathetic might as well be his middle name.

Gerard Pathetic Way.

It did have a certain ring to it, and he had to say that he preferred it to Arthur - fucking Arthur. He had to say that Arthur was a bad decision on his parents' part.

And it was Arthur that Gerard was so caught up in thinking about that made sure he didn't at all look where he was going on the way to art class, and just like that, it was made evident that God hated him in the fact that moments later, Gerard had fallen to the floor, and of course, on top of none other than Frank Iero - fuck.

Gerard's eyes widened as his cheeks turned a horrible shade of red as he stumbled trying to get up again. "Oh fuck, I'm so sorry, I- I... fu-"

"Don't worry about it." Frank only smirked, lying back on the floor with his hands behind his head like he was just sunbathing or something, and oh dear god Gerard was about to goddamn kill himself here. "Quite comfy down here - better than art class."

"Frank, we're going to be late, come on!" Gerard insisted, unsure as to when Frank Iero had been involved in the matter of him getting to art class on time, and really, he knew instantly that there was no way in hell that this was going to go at all well. "Frank!"

"Have you stopped trying to figure out who I am for yourself? Because I don't want to fit some messed up asshole stereotype of yours, you know? Gerard, if we're going to be friends then I'm not going to goddamn act like you want me to." And really, where on earth 'friends' had come from, neither of them had any idea at all.

"This isn't the same you that was staring at me burning poptarts yesterday - this is Frank 'Asshole' Iero, you're far too good at lying, aren't you?" Gerard sighed out, watching out as Frank resigned himself to silence as he got up from the ground, wiping dust off his knees in a manner that porn had entirely corrupted for the seventeen year old.

"I'm excellent at lying, Gerard." Frank corrected him in a tone simply far too nonchalant. "Now, are we friends or what?"

"I... I... guess?" Gerard blushed a little and Frank tried to stop lying to himself about what that blush meant and why on earth he would ever care about it, because he didn't, and Mikey was just wrong, wasn’t he?

"Then come on, I don't want to be here, and my parents aren't home so we can go hang out over there." Frank gestured down the corridor and Gerard soon came to realise that Frank was genuinely going to screw his life over with this, but still he was far too eager to say yes.

"Why me? Surely you have friends you actually want in your house, I-"

"You're my friend, Gerard Way, and maybe I can't be bothered to find someone I'd rather spend time with so we're stuck with each other, I guess. Now come on - what do you say?"

Gerard's mind, and Gerard's sanity said that this was truly the worst idea he'd ever had and literally the worst thing to ever agree to, but Gerard's heart and Gerard's hormones said, "yes."

And Frank fucking grinned along like the asshole he was, and Gerard tried not to think too hard about being manipulated because it was giving him a headache being near the guy, let alone trying to decipher as to what the hell was going on in that head of his.

-

And as Frank led Gerard into his house, the sixteen year old locking the door behind them, Gerard found himself thrown to the floor for the second time in the past twenty minutes, but this time, not by Frank, but by something entirely more slobbery and furry, yeah, if that wasn't a dog, Gerard was pretty much screwed.

"Daisy, come on, get off him." Frank could only burst out into laughter as the seventeen year old continue to lie there with his eyes screwed shut, even as the overexcited and certainly overgrown dog climbed off of him. "She gets a little excited around new people."

"Well, you don't fucking say." Gerard sighed out, pulling his eyes open and looking at the goddamn asshole of a dog sat across the hall, almost fucking smirking at him. 

"You ever going to get up, huh?" Frank smirked, watching as the seventeen year old, almost reluctantly pulled himself up from the floor, following his absolute least favourite straight boy up the stairs and into the room with a massive Misfits poster across the door.

"Nice music taste." Gerard commented, grinning a little and Frank only smiled as Gerard shut the door behind them and the sixteen year old sat down on the bed, leaving Gerard to awkwardly make his way to Frank Iero's bed and sit crossed legged beside him, and really despite just how absurd it sounded, this would all be so much easier for him if he was wearing a miniskirt.

"Yeah, you too." Frank sighed out, pulling a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lighting it, turning to Gerard only momentarily to exchange a silent nod and then hold out the packet to him, leaving Gerard to take one and light it with his own lighter.

"How's being best friends with my brother, huh?" Gerard asked, falling back against the bed and blowing smoke rings out up at the ceiling, and definitely not changing the subject of conversation to the Frank that he preferred - the Frank that had caused him to burn poptarts, and not the Frank that was ruining his life, despite the fact that they were very clearly the same person, but Gerard's head was already screwed at this point.

"He asks too many questions and makes too many assumptions." Frank's words were indirect but the sixteen year old froze a little as he came to realise exactly what subject of conversation he was alluding to, and oh god, why had he ever decided that inviting Gerard over was a good idea? He didn't like him, he most certainly fucking didn't, but he seriously wasn't helping himself here.

"Yeah." Gerard sighed out, leaving Frank to fall back against the bed beside him, and the two to exchange a somewhat reluctant smile, and really at this point, Frank was certain that his head was trying to kill him. "What was he asking questions about?"

Well, unless Frank lied here, he was pretty much dead.

"Just stuff." He sighed out, deliberately avoiding Gerard's gaze, and leaving the seventeen year old to chuckle to himself at just how obvious Frank was being. "What?"

"Okay, so that means it's something you don't want me to know - something you're embarrassed about, huh?" And Gerard knew that he was kind of being an asshole here, but Frank spent the entirety of his life being an asshole, so really, the guy kind of deserved this here, somehow; Gerard wasn't just a nosy little asshole, he promised.

Frank only shrugged in response after seeing just how well lying to Gerard had gotten him previously; Gerard was just different to everybody else and he really did fucking hate that, and most due to the fact that he was well aware of the reason why, just nowhere near comfortable accepting it.

"And yet you trusted goddamn Mikey." Gerard snorted at that, and Frank's eyes only widened; the sixteen year old sitting up on the bed and watching Gerard with a certain degree of curiosity. "Mikey's just an asshole, you know - like you, so I guess that's why you get along so well, but-"

"Gerard, what's your goddamn problem with me?" Frank exclaimed - snapping all at once, and startling the seventeen year old in the process, who soon sat up, facing Frank on the bed, and right then, Frank was far too pissed off and confused to even think about just how close they were and about how this was his bed, and about how these thoughts just wouldn't leave him alone, and that telling Mikey had only made it worse.

Had only made it real.

"What do you mean?" Gerard asked for the millionth time and Frank had to bite down upon his bottom lip to avoid slapping either himself or Gerard in the face.

"You're more than happy to come over to my house and talk to me like we're friends, but I'm still this asshole to you, and I just don't get it! Where the hell do we stand? You're just so goddamn confusing, it fucking hurts my head."

"Yes, I think you're an asshole, Frank, but I put up with you and come over your house, because maybe I don't want you to be, because you try too hard, and this isn't the real you: you're a mess, to say the least, and I just want to speak to the Frank that made me burn poptarts and not the one who thinks that he's better than me."

"But why do you still fucking try? Why the hell do you care and why on earth don't you just give up, because, really, by now I would have punched myself in the face, and really, I kind of want to." Frank admitted, sighing out, and watching as Gerard's gaze drifted downwards and his cheeks tinged a certain shade of pink.

"Do you really want to know? Do you want the absolute truth?" Gerard snapped, just like that, glaring up at Frank like he hated nothing more than he hated the sixteen year old, and really, that was nothing but the polar opposite of the truth.

"Yeah. Of course I want to know, Gerard." Frank was instant in his answer, and for the one time when he actually needed to think about something, because for once when it might be important, he didn't.

"Only if you be truthful with me and you just throw away this asshole act because I can't deal with that anymore, Frank, okay?" And Gerard was trying his best not cry, but really, he was just about to fucking ruin his life here, and perhaps, just like that, maybe it couldn't quite be helped.

"Ger- are you crying?" Frank's eyes widened, leaning forward, causing the distance between them to practically be non-existent as Frank tried not to think about Gerard's lips, and just about Gerard really, and god, it really wasn't working. "I'm sorry- I... fuc-"

"Frank, just..." Gerard pulled away a little, leaving Frank's eyes to widen as he tried not to look into this too much and he just prayed that his head would stop driving him to insanity over this, even if just for five seconds. "It's my fault - I'm the one that's messed up everything over here-"

"What? No, Gerard, n-no... you haven't." And Gerard could only laugh at how naive Frank still was, and really, he did hate to break that naivety, but it was inevitable.

"I like you, Frank. That's why I keep trying, and that's why I still put up with you being an asshole. I like you. You know what I mean." And as the seventeen year old stunned Frank into a wide eyed silence, he found it best to perhaps just leave, and never ever fucking speak to Frank Iero again.

-

"I didn't fuck her, you know, Mikey." Pete Wentz was sat beside Mikey at the lunch table: Ray and Bob having left only momentarily because Bob had spotted the maths teacher that wanted to skin him and use him as a rug, and Ray had been dragged into hiding out with him in the boys' toilets.

And Mikey reckoned the minute that they'd been already left alone for was just about the worst minute of his life, because god, nothing worse than the acceptance of the fact that his and Pete's friendship was truly and utterly screwed.

"Mikey, seriously, we didn't fuck - that's something that you've just, I don't know, fabricated or something." Pete sighed out, soon ready to accept that he was going to get no form of response from his once best friend, until, of course, Mikey met his gaze, and slapped him across the face.

"Come on, of course you did!" He spat at him, just a little too loud, and the people sat around them soon grew silent, eyes turning towards the scene they were making.

"Of for god's sake, Mikey, come on, people are staring at us, just, come on." Pete sighed out, urging for Mikey just to calm the fuck down, or more realistically for Ray and Bob to just hurry the hell up and come back before Pete was nothing more than a bloody mess on the floor at Mikey's hand.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that not even once did you fuck her." Mikey lowered his voice, and soon enough the few people who had been staring lost interest.

"We never - I didn't fuck her. Not even once." Pete told him, calmly looking his best friend in the eyes, because really, for the first time, Pete was telling one hundred percent of the truth, and yet of course, it was only now that Mikey didn't believe him - it was goddamn ridiculous, or maybe just karma or something, but whatever.

"Wow, you're actually- you actually didn't fuck her? Man, you're actually stupid, she's hot!" Needless to say, Mikey's reaction was just a little messed up.

"Yeah, but she was also your girlfriend, and seemingly, unlike you, I value our friendship more than I care about some fuck with some girl who'll probably never even speak to me again." Pete sighed out, rolling his eyes at Mikey. "But whatever, I forgive you okay?"

"Yeah, I forgive you too. We're good?" Pete nodded in response, not getting the time to answer before his eyes practically fell from their sockets in shock at just who had oh so nonchalantly sat down adjacent to the two of them.

"Mikey, I, uh-"

"Holy fu- Frank Iero?" Let's say that Pete had a little bit on man crush - he just kind of thought that Frank was immensely cool and not just some messed up asshole like everybody else. "Wow, wait- how the hell are you friends with Frank Iero, Mikey?"

"Long story, whatever. Look, anyway, this is uhh, Pete." Mikey sighed out, watching as Frank's eyes widened a little at the boy sat beside Mikey.

"Uhh... hi..." Frank trailed off momentarily before turning back to Mikey and letting out an exasperated sigh. "We kind of need to talk at some point - I'm really fucking dead right now.... like I've actually gone and ruined my life in like the past twenty four hours and dear god it's only going to get worse."

"Is this about what you told me?" Mikey asked in the most discreet manner he could muster, and still Pete was rather ignorantly craning his neck into their conversation; Frank felt uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Unfortunately so-"

"Wait, is that a hickey, dude..." Pete's eyes widened, fixated upon the rather obvious spot upon Frank's neck and oh dear god, the look he exchanged with Mikey pretty much signified just how fucking screwed he was.

"It was a one night stand kind of thing and it's messed up and my head's spinning like hell, and it wasn't who were talking about, Mikey, it was someone completely random, and I know I'm a whore but still, this isn't me... actually, I really, don't know who I am at all, I just-"

Mikey hated to interrupt Frank, but he was all too conscious of Pete sat beside them and Ray and Bob making their way back to them across the lunch hall. "Look, Frank, come on we'll go talk about this in private, okay? Pete, Ray and Bob are coming back, okay?"

"Whatever." Pete shrugged it off, catching Bob's gaze across the room and the two sharing some sort of joke that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, leaving Mikey and Frank with the perfect opportunity to make an exit.

"Some random... fuck, Mikey, it was a guy... last night I just let some guy assfuck me, and maybe that should have made it better because I should have realised that I'm not gay and I don't like it like that and I'm just confused here, but god, it only made it worse because... I... Mikey, I've never came like that before in my life and god- Mikey, I- I... don't want this, I don't want to be like this, but I just, I-"

"Frank, come on, calm down - do you want to go home and talk about this, I mean, Gerard's at home today because he's got some theatre shit later, but-"

"We'll go over to mine." And Mikey couldn't help but just stare at Frank, struggling to look at this situation in a manner that didn't make everything fit together in the way he least wanted it to.

"I... I... just don't want to deal with anybody else right now." Frank threw a lacklustre lie through his lips, and really, this time, it was for both Frank and Mikey's benefit.

-


	10. In Which Frank's Dog Causes Gerard To Become A Devout Catholic

Frank reckoned that his life was beyond fucking screwed right now, and no matter what nonsense Mikey Way tried to comfort him with, the feeling of despair and 'oh god, I'm absolutely fucked' just would not go away, or maybe it was just the unforgettable reminder of the fact that Frank had been fucked, but in a far more literal way entirely.

And to put it incredibly ironically, a reminder like that was an absolute pain in the ass.

And really, discomfort sitting down was really not something the sixteen year old had bargained for when he called up some random asshole off Craigslist and hoped for the best, simply in the hopes of having hated it and having some form of reassurance that he wasn't a massive flaming homosexual.

But despite the dodgy guy and the ass pain, it was still the best fuck that Frank Iero had ever had, and really, Frank has a damn lot of fucks, and all of them casual, and none of them like that one. And he just couldn't help but think about how much better it would be with some cute - someone that he cared about and somehow that cared about him, and maybe even someone that would be just a little more gentle than the other guy had been.

Frank just wanted to be told that he was loved while his ass was fucked, and he wanted to be cuddled after, and he wanted to be reassured that he was okay like this, and that it was okay to be the fucking faggot that he really was, and Frank wanted someone to kiss like nothing else mattered, and then suddenly everything made far too much sense and not at all in the way that Frank had wanted it to.

Really, this was nothing more than what was supposed to be the sixteen year old's worst nightmare, but in reality, it was nothing like that at all. This felt like acceptance, and really, it kind of felt okay, and maybe it was just the fact that Frank had managed to make sense of his own head for once.

He just didn't want a girlfriend and he could never have a girlfriend, yet he drowns himself in casual fucks, because he didn't like girls like that, and he never would, and really, it was just a way to get off, a way to pass the time, and a way to make himself look 'cooler', and it had worked, at least until now, when he finally managed to figured things out.

At least until Gerard Way turned up, at least until he made Mikey's brother burn the poptarts and caused Alicia and Lindsey to laugh at him, and really, Frank wanted it all to go back to when he didn't even know who Gerard fucking Way was.

He wanted to go back to Bert and the skate park and he wanted to make things up with that once best friend of his, and maybe he'd talk Gee into getting into bed with him, and then everything would be okay, because he could just lie to himself for a little longer, and Gee was kind of cute, he guessed, but, but now the thought had come to him, it just refused to leave.

Frank didn't want a girlfriend, and yet he wanted someone to kiss, cuddle, fuck, and care about, and some to care about him too. He wanted all of that, and he wanted so much more - he wanted kisses in the dark and sneaking out to smoke in stupid places that they'd get lost in, and he wanted to fuck like last night, and he wanted to come like he did last night.

And for the first time, he'd finally made sense of it, because Frank Iero wanted a boyfriend.

And, still, it wasn't just as 'simple' as that, because he didn't just want a boyfriend, he wanted Gerard Way.

And right now, kind of to punch himself in the face as well.

"Frank, are you even listening to me at all?" Mikey's voice seemed to almost fade back into reality as the sixteen year old felt himself pulled away from his thoughts, bearing what he could only call a mortified expression. "You're not - are you? What are you thinking about? Come on, talk to me."

"I'm gay." The words fell from his lips unintentionally and as a result, Frank threw his hand over his lips, almost jumping at what he never meant to confess. "Fuck..." He exhaled in response, pulling his gaze away from Mikey's and trying not to think about how his older brother had been sat just there, just the other day, and how things had just fucked themselves over from then on.

Because what Gerard had said had fucking fucked him over, and maybe he wanted just to admit how he felt and be a fucking faggot with Gerard Way, but he didn't quite have the guts to do it, and maybe he was quite happy to just postpone it a little longer.

"It feels so weird to say it aloud, and I didn't- I didn't mean to, and I didn't mean to be like this, and I- I just am... and everything makes so much fucking sense now, but just not in the way that I want it to be, because I don't want to be some fucking faggot, and I-.... but, I'm so fucking gay, Mikey. It's so fucking obvious now."

"Well, with what you said to me previously, I'd already gathered that." Mikey exhaled with a small, but somehow reassuring smile. "And Frank, you're not just a 'faggot', okay? You're my friend, and it doesn't matter who you're attracted to at all." But Frank couldn't help but reckon that 'even my brother' wasn't quite part of that.

"Yesterday was just me freaking out because I had some stupid crush and now this is me getting assfucked and loving it, and then me freaking out until I've cleared out everything that's stopped me admitting the truth and now it's just a matter of joining the dots, because I want a relationship and I want to be loved and shit, but just not by a girl, and I've never felt that way about girls, so it was just fucking, and I thought that was okay, and I thought that I was just an asshole. But now, this is me admitting everything, and this is me making sense of it all, and I kind of want to accept this, and I want to let this be who I am, but who I am is just who I can't be."

"Frank, what on earth's stopping you being you?" Mikey sighed out, getting up and checking the time. "I've got to go - will you be alright?"

"Nothing's stopping me but myself, but I'm doing so for a far too good reason- look, just leave it... I didn't mean to 'come out' like this, I need fuck another girl, and I need to fuck one I care about because maybe I'm just confused and maybe that's all this is-"

"Frank..." Mikey sighed out, shaking his head. "That is most certainly not going to work, Gerard-"

"I don't fucking care about what Gerard did and didn't do. I need to talk to someone, anyway, I'm going out too."

"What you mean by that is that you need to fuck some random girl, huh?" And Mikey knew that he wasn't fucking wrong here.

"No, Gee, is my friend - I trust her, she gets me. She's not just some random girl, okay?"

And with Mikey thrown back into a sickening silence, Frank made his way down to the skate park, on a beeline to ruin his life, basically.

-

"Lindsey, you know what? You were absolutely right - Frank Iero is the worse fucking idea I've ever had." Of course, Gerard only seemed to understand her point when it was far too late and he was sat on Lindsey's kitchen floor, wide eyed and with an empty beer can balanced dangerously on his head.

"Finally, you fucking get it." She sighed out, shaking her head at her tipsy mess of a best friend, who really did appear to be having some kind of mental breakdown right now. "Gerard, come on-" She took the beer can from where it was balanced on his head and threw it in the trash, only for the seventeen year to cut him off.

"When's Alicia coming over? I need to talk to someone who isn't being a bitch about this." Of course, tipsy Gerard didn't quite understand what kind of effect his words would have; fortunately, Lindsey was well accustomed to this, and only laughed it off, rolling her eyes and sitting down beside him.

"She's coming over any minute now." She reminded him, checking her phone for any messages from Alicia, and ending up checking Gerard's too as he'd left it on the kitchen counter when he'd arrived. "You've got a message from Mikey."

"I don't fucking care - I don't fucking care about Mikey. He's an asshole: Alicia gets that." Lindsey scoffed, muttering something under her breath about how clear he'd made it to see who his favourite was.

Lindsey read Mikey's message to Gerard for him then, her eyes widening at the content, and deciding, against Gerard's wishes, to read it aloud. "Mikey says that he was over at Frank's just five minutes ago and that you really should call him because there's something that Frank told him that you might really want to know."

Gerard shook his head, laughing it off. "Fuck Frank Iero."

"And now you've got a text from Frank himself.... addressed to 'Gee' - fucking hell, Gerard, what are you going to do when he asks you for your number, huh?" Lindsey sighed out, not even wanting to experience whatever bullshit explanation Gerard could string together in response to that. "He says that he wants to meet you at the skate park, and he has a request for the black leather miniskirt... and he says that he wants to maybe go back to his." Lindsey paused for a moment as she took this all in. "Gerard, you're fucking fucked."

"Oh, I know." He sighed out, falling back so that he was lying down on the kitchen.

"What the fuck?" Alicia exclaimed as she made her way into the kitchen, eyes wide. "Lindsey, you left the door unlocked, you know." She paused to roll her eyes and Lindsey muttered something under her breath. "I locked it again, though."

"Hello, Alicia." Gerard's face broke out into an almost intimidatingly large grin. "I think my life's probably just about ruined right now, or at least that's what Lindsey says- I mean, Lindsey's clever, she's usually right, so she's probably right, so-"

"One fucking can of beer." Lindsey shook her head, words directed at Alicia, who couldn't help but laugh in response. "Never again. Fucking never again. I'd rather take him to a gaybar like this. Seriously, Gerard - just go get yourself a boyfriend or something."

"Why's he ruined his life?" Alicia's words were directed at Lindsey; like the slightly drunk seventeen year old laid out on the kitchen floor like a starfish wasn't at all capable of speaking for himself.

"Frank Iero. Mikey's texted him about something important and he refuses to acknowledge his brother's existence and then Frank wants to meet 'Gee' - his crossdressing alter ego, and the other day, as Gerard, he kind of admitted to Frank how he felt about him."

"Why don't you see what Mikey has to say at the very least? Look he's a prick, but you don't actually have to do what he tells you to do - you can just consider the option, can't you?" And really, Gerard seemed personally offended that Alicia had even suggested such a logical conclusion.

"No, I might go and meet Frank, though. I mean, I hate Mikey, regardless of who I am, but I've only fucked up things with Frank as Gerard, so that means Gee's totally fine with him-"

"He basically said that he wants to fuck you though - and then he's really going to figure out that you don't have a cunt, you just are a cunt." Lindsey sent Alicia a look that roughly translated as 'if you at all encourage him, I will not hesitate to slap you'.

"Look, I’ll just say no - he was fine about it last time. I just need to see him." Gerard stressed, finally getting up from the floor and grabbing his phone back from Lindsey, and texting Frank back with a 'yeah sure' and far too many kisses.

"I don't even want to be a part of this-" Lindsey got up; grabbing a beer from the side, reckoning that she would really need it.

"Lindsey, could I maybe borrow some of your clothes?"

And if the two hadn't been best friends for years, she really would have killed Gerard Way right then and right fucking there.

-

Lindsey's clothes didn't quite fit him, but really, Gerard, or Gee, had now had two more cans of beer and was drunk to ensure that it didn't even matter to him, or well, that nothing mattered to him at all, well not really.

Except Frank: Frank mattered, even despite the fact that he really shouldn't.

But Gerard had already just about accepted the fact that he was a fucking stupid motherfucker, who just happened to look far too pretty and made a really convincing girl in a miniskirt and a full face of make up. What? Everyone has their talents, and it just happened to be that Gerard's were crossdressing and ruining his life in general.

Lindsey had even really tried to stop him this time; she'd just shook her head and muttered something under her breath as he left her house dressed in a miniskirt similar to the one that Frank had requested, and copious amounts of bright red lipstick.

Surely there was something fucked up in what he was doing, but no matter what, he just couldn't quite se it, even if it seemed that just about everyone else in the world could. At least Frank just didn't know, and right now, that was all that really mattered to Gerard: a couple of cans of beer really did make him quite the narcissistic.

And really, he wondered if going to see Frank whilst more than a little tipsy was entirely a good idea, but the alcohol in his system ensured that the thought was soon long gone and ignored for favour of talking to a Frank Iero that didn't hate him, or at least didn't hate Gee, because really, the longer this masquerade went on, the more that Gee and Gerard began to seem like entirely two different people, and if he hadn't had those cans of beer earlier, maybe that would have mattered to him in the slightest, and maybe even threw up a red flag.

But no, it seemed like he'd really got the act of a stereotypical teenage girl down to perfection, as his mind was filled with nothing but obsessing over cute boys (well, one cute boy... Frank Iero), and caring far too much about how he looked - including spending far too long in the bathroom and not for getting off in a rather obvious facade of privacy.

And maybe, for the grin on Frank's face when he caught his eye, maybe for that, it was all worth it, or maybe, just maybe, Gerard was just drunk enough to rationalise ruining his life for the sake of Frank fucking Iero.

"We haven't spoken in far too long." He didn't stop smiling as he approached, and soon enough, Gee was smiling a bright, red, lipstick clad smile too. "I've missed you, you know." Frank's words were whispered into Gee's hair as he pulled the seventeen year old in for a hug, and Gee tried to think straight, both in figurative and literal senses of the word.

"I've missed you too." Gee forced a smile and bit back and stupid remarks regarding seeing him just the other day that his subconscious was fucking him over with, because maybe it would be entirely better if Gee and Gerard were two different people, and Gerard couldn't just fuck Gee's life over like he already had with his own.

"You look good, you know. Really pretty - beautiful, and fucking hot." Frank giggled a little, pulling away and making no secret of the way his eyes fell to Gee's fishnet clad thighs. "So good."

"Oh, I know." Gee giggled a little; Gee was always far more confident and far more slutty than Gerard, and maybe, even sometimes the seventeen year old began to consider that Gee was just a better person overall. "You look good too."

"Is that it?" Frank's eyebrows raised, mocking offense as Gee continued to roll his eyes, running a hand back through his hair: heavy with far too much hairspray. "I called you fucking hot. I'm fucking eyefucking you, and I'm just 'good', huh? Is that how it is, Gee?"

"Maybe I don't want you to eyefuck me - ever considered that, huh?" Gee smirked, grabbing Frank's hand with a kind of confidence that Gerard would never amount to, dragging the sixteen year old down the street with him.

"Everyone wants me to eyefuck them, everyone wants me to fuck them, and everyone wants so much more." Frank smirked, his ego bigger than him right now.

"Not me." Gee grinned, trying to play this all off into flirting, and not a 'I'm actually a guy in drag, actually Gerard Way in drag' problem, which he really didn't reckon that Frank would be at all inclined to understand.

Frank snorted. "You're a terrible liar."

And at that, Gee nearly doubled over laughing at the fact that the boy who thought he was a terrible liar was also convinced that he was female. "Oh, I'm not. I'm really fucking not."

"Maybe that's not such a good thing, you know?" Frank raised his eyebrows, catching Gee's gaze. "What are you ever so good at lying about then? What are you so good at lying about that it makes you laugh at me? Come on, tell me."

"Wouldn't be a secret if I told you, would it?" Gee smirked, causing Frank's eyes to widen as the two stopped in the middle of the pavement: the younger’s face flashing through just about a million different emotions in a span of five seconds.

"What the fuck are you lying to me about?" Frank demanded, suddenly growing serious, and Gee just coming to the realisation that he'd fucked up far too much this time.

"Frank, just please, it's complicated... to say the least. Can we just get to yours and I'll talk then?" And that definitely didn't mean 'please give me five minutes to come up with a somewhat believable lie', he fucking promised.

-

And as Gee made his way inside, he found himself becoming a devout Christian as he was so fucking thankful that dogs were unable to speak English, because Daisy, Frank's dog, definitely recognised him as Gerard, and was barking rather loudly to signify that.

"Daisy, come on, go to your bed." Frank gestured, almost herding his dog into the dining room, not wanting to have to apologise for his fucking idiot of an overgrown puppy tackling yet another unsuspecting person to the ground. "Sorry, she... gets overexcited..." Frank sighed out, shaking his head, and as Frank led Gee upstairs, the seventeen year found himself pretending not to know where Frank's room was, and that he totally wasn't some faggot with a creepy crush on him dressed in drag.

"Just sit on the bed - whatever, but I want an explanation, okay?" Frank sighed, letting the seventeen year old sit down as he rummaged through his drawers, eventually pulling out a half empty bottle of vodka.

"I'm asexual." Gee exhaled loudly, praying to his newfound deity that Frank would believe him, or at the very least, have some sort of notion as to what asexuality even was, because he really didn't feel like fucking explaining this to him, as he handed exactly planned for this extravagant lie he'd just pulled out of his ass.

"Oh..." Frank paused, brows furrowed as he turned back to face the seventeen year old sat almost awkwardly on his bed. "Is that the thing where you're not attracted to anyone?" He asked, sitting down beside Gee.

"Kind of. I'm not sexually attracted to anyone; like I just don't find anything appealing about either of the sexual organs, nor do I want to do anything like that. But I am romantically attracted to guys, so... like... I'd want to kiss someone, but not actually like... I mean, I could, but I just don't particularly want to..."

"Okay..." Frank sighed out, taking a swig of vodka and thinking over what Gee had just said for a few seconds. "So, you've got to be at least romantically attracted to me, come on." And then that fucking smirk again, and Frank was really unfeasibly stupid, because that was the worst thought out lie and he'd just believed it like the concept of untruths hadn't even ever occurred to him.

"Maybe." Gee smirked, blushing a little: head exploding at just how good of a lie this had actually been, because like this, he could totally fucking date Frank Iero without fucking him and his true gender having to come into play at all - god this was fucking brilliant, and Frank was fucking stupid, and that was fucking brilliant.

"You totally fucking do." Frank grinned, lying back against the bed, putting the vodka on the bedside table.

"Yeah, okay, but that's not you - you're Frank Iero, you're all fucking and not caring. I'm the opposite, aren't I? We wouldn't work." Gee sighed out, falling back beside Frank, who stopped for a moment at that, catching the seventeen year old's gaze as his heart stopped momentarily.

"That's you saying that you want to be my girlfriend, isn't it?" And at that, Gee rolled over, burying his face in the pillow and probably creating a vibrant red lipstick stain that Frank's mum was really going to question. "I can change, you know? I mean, I've just never found someone I cared about like that, but... you're different and I care about you and I like you, and maybe we could work, and maybe I need this, and you're so fucking hot that maybe that's enough."

And Frank was just far too eager to 'overwrite' any suspicions of homosexuality lingering in his head; he wanted an easy way out and to him, Gee, was just that, and really, this was going to do nothing but fuck everything over so much more.

"We could try, I guess..." Gee sighed out, heart beating entirely too fast, and Lindsey was actually going to slap him so fucking hard for this, but maybe Frank was just too fucking pretty, and too fucking perfect for him to even care, because to Gerard, this was his one chance, and he was stupid enough to take it.

"So then, Gee, be my girlfriend?" Frank asked, blushing a little, and focusing on the fact that this was solid evidence that he wasn't gay, and not just how much Bert would laugh when he eventuality struck and he had to tell him that he had a girlfriend. At least it wasn't a boyfriend; at least it wasn't a boyfriend.

But, Frank was fucking stupid.

"Yes." Gee exhaled, sitting up; Frank mimicking his actions with a grin that was practically superglued to his lips.

"I want to kiss you. You know, I really want to kiss you - like all the time." Frank exhaled, leaning closer to his newfound 'girlfriend'.

"So do I." Gee admitted, grinning more than he ever had before, because Frank was his boyfriend, and this was pretty much his end goal in life wasn't it?

And as they kissed, Gerard told himself that everything was perfect, because this felt fucking good, and this was all he'd dreamed of, but he felt cheated, because this didn't feel real, not really.

And it wasn't - after all, Frank wasn't dating him, he wasn't kissing him, he didn't have feelings for him... he was dating Gee, he was kissing Gee, he had feelings for Gee. And fuck, Gerard did not imagine that this self-concocted crossdressing alter ego was going to end up stealing both Frank Iero and all sanity left in his life.

Maybe he should have listened to Lindsey, but he was in too deep now, and he did love Frank, and he was still kissing Frank, kind of. Maybe he just should have been grateful.

And maybe, Frank should have stopped wishing that these were the lips of a guy, or at least fully accepted himself as he was, and not just ended up throwing himself into nothing other than heterosexual death trap - and he wasn't even getting a fuck out of it.

-


	11. Gerard Way Didn't Eat Whole Grain Cereal For Nothing

The tension between the two Way brothers at breakfast on an unfortunate Wednesday morning was utterly unbearable, and Mrs Way's oblivious outlook upon the whole situation did nothing but add to the silent yet just as deadly conflict between the two teenagers.

And really, Gerard didn't even have a fucking clue as to why Mikey was staring at him like axe-murdering his brother was something he was seriously considering, but of course, just to keep up, well, tradition, he found himself staring at the fifteen year old in exactly the same way.

And still Mrs Way busied herself with making cereal, leaving Gerard to glare at his brother from behind the brim of a piping hot mug of coffee - he downed that shit like a motherfucker in order to assert dominance, and just like that, Mikey grabbed what was clearly some kind of fucked up illegal pill of some sort from his pocket and popped it into his mouth without a second thought, and Gerard was really fucking certain that there was absolutely no hope for bettering his brother if he didn't end up setting himself on fire.

"Mikey, do you want some cereal?" Mrs Way unknowingly broke some sort of silent war between her two sons, whilst almost patronisingly shaking a box of Cheerios at her fifteen year old son, who reckoned he was entirely too cool for breakfast on a whole, which in Gerard's eyes was nothing other than fucking ridiculous. "Gerard?" She finally tried, with entirely less hope, but his answer surprised her entirely.

Gerard met his brother's eyes and answered in the most determinedly bitter tone known to man. "Yes, mother, I will have some cereal." And really, Gerard didn't at all have a clue as to how 'I can eat cereal, fuck you' won him this, but Mikey looked relatively startled.

But then as his mother poured the cereal into the bowl, Gerard came to realise that this was fucking whole grain, more bran than a farmer has ever actually seen in his life, motherfucking healthy cereal. But, of course, Gerard Way was a stubborn motherfucker, and ate the first spoonful as he met his brother's gaze, smirking, and trying his best not to choke like a fucking champion.

And as he finally finished the bowl, which throughout the process of, Mikey's gaze never left his, Gerard knew that he had most certainly won, and that he'd won something that he still had no fucking clue what it actually was, so really, it better be something good because Gerard Way didn't eat whole grain cereal for nothing.

"I need to get to work now, you boys will be fine without me, won't you? Gerard, you've got theatre after school, remember?" Mrs Way smiled, looking between her two children, still totally oblivious regarding the cereal war that had just taken place.

"We'll be fine, mum." Mikey forced a smile, yet still never taking his gaze away from Gerard's, not even for a second. "Have a nice day."

"You too." Mrs Way added, grabbing her bag and making her way out of the back door and round the side gate, and at the exact moment that Mikey heard the start of her car, he almost seemed to jump into life, standing up and full on yelling at his brother.

"Are you a fucking idiot?"

Gerard sat there, continuing to stare at his brother, and just a little overwhelmed as he struggled to understand just quite what Mikey was referring to here; he highly suspected that it wasn't the cereal he'd just eaten, but really, you could never be sure.

"I'm not the one fucking popping pills at the breakfast table with our mother like it's fucking nothing!" Gerard exclaimed, rolling his eyes and watching as Mikey blushed a little, shrugging it off. "I swear to God you're addicted or something."

"It's paracetamol, Gerard." Mikey broke into a grin, pulling the little box out of his pocket and showing his brother.

"Oh..." Gerard didn't quite know how to react to that. "Why the hell do you casually carry paracetamol around with you?" He asked, running a hand back through his severely tangled bedhead, which had really proved harder than he had anticipated.

"It's for Pete - honestly, I don't fucking know. I just owe him a favour and sometimes with Pete it's just easier not to ask." Mikey sighed out shaking his head, before suddenly seeming to snap back onto topic, their paracetamol related tangent almost visibly dissolving around them. "Seriously though, Gerard... what the fuck are you thinking?"

"What?" Gerard continued: still utterly clueless as to exactly what his brother was addressing here - he highly suspected that it, however, was not cereal at this point though.

"Frank told me that he has a girlfriend yesterday." Mikey's tone was nothing but spiteful at this point as he neared the point of fucking punching something: whether that be his brother or another vase of his mother's that there were going to have to bury at the bottom at the garden or something and pray that she forgot about.

"Oh... yeah..." Gerard sighed out, biting his lip and looking down, having really not anticipated that Frank would be entirely shouting about this.

"I don't know who I'm pissed off with more, though. Him or you, because really, you're both being fucking idiots. You don't have to create a whole new identity for Frank to care about you, for fuck's sake, Gerard." Mikey shook his head, resorting to biting his lip before he was screaming all of Frank's secrets at his extremely sexually and perhaps even gender confused brother.

"You know what? I'm happy? And still, you can be nothing more than an asshole about it." Gerard shook his head, getting up and far too forcefully throw his spoon into the sink for someone to wash up at some point in the next three weeks, probably.

"But you're not, though, come on, Gerard. This isn't you - this bitch in a skirt just isn't you, and we all fucking know that, and maybe that's just why Frank has noticed yet because this girl version of you is absolutely nothing like the real you at all, and lying to yourself like that is actually going to kill you someday."

"So basically you're disproving yourself by say that who Frank is in love with is like the polar opposite of me." Gerard smirked, entirely too fucking proud of being able to say that Frank Iero wasn't in love with him, like seriously, the lengths he went to spite and better his brother were actually ridiculous at times.

"But Gerard, he's not fucking in love with this fake you, at all. He just jumped into a relationship because dear god he's fucking stupid and insecure, fuck-" Mikey couldn't finish what he was saying without outing Frank, and although that would seriously just make this whole situation a million times easier, he just couldn't break a promise to a friend, even if that friend was being the world's most stupid motherfucker.

"Mikey, will you stop fucking up my life for just one fucking minute - could you possibly do that?" Gerard asked, turning to make his way upstairs.

"Oh honestly, you seem to be doing a perfectly fine job of ruining your life by yourself, Gerard."

-

"Oh dear God, Gerard, you are an absolute idiot..." Lindsey joined the seventeen year old by his locker in the school hallway and quite honestly, Gerard was absolutely baffled as to how she'd gotten to know.

"Tell my brother to stop fucking telling people, will you?" Gerard sighed out, casually planning his younger brother's murder like there was absolutely no better way to spend a Wednesday morning.

"Gerard..." Lindsey sighed out, almost laughing at him, and with that, the seventeen year old found himself more than a little confused. "I heard this from Frank, not Mikey. Frank's practically told the whole school about this fucking girlfriend called Gee, and it wasn't hard to figure out just who that really was, was it? Seriously, he's going fucking overboard, it's almost like he's trying to make some sort of overly heterosexual statement."

And really, Frank was.

"That's kind of cute, actually." Gerard responded, rolling his eyes at Lindsey and muttering something under his breath about her being a massive fucking cockblock that she just pretended not to hear. 

"Yeah, cute that you've destroyed your life with a fake identity that the person you're in love with is going to hate you for, and not to mention, if Frank Iero actually had a heart, this would be exactly how you'd break it." Lindsey snapped, shaking her head, and really, it was a godsend that Alicia turned up before someone's head was shoved into a brick wall or something, because with the equally stubborn nature of the two friends, it wasn't unlikely.

"Hey..." Alicia's tone started off very cheery and almost suspicious considering they had maths in approximately four minutes time, but she soon trailed off as she caught the rather concerning glare between her two best friends, and really, this time, Gerard didn't even have some fucking cereal to settle this with.

"Gerard's actually fucking ruined his life - utterly and completely." Lindsey thought that to be a wonderfully positive way in which to start off Alicia's day, and it did in fact seem that Alicia had absolutely no choice in the matter before her best friend was full on ranting to her.

"Yeah... Frank's going on about some girlfriend in a miniskirt and I'm just a little confused..." Alicia added and with the glare from Gerard, perhaps that was all she needed to say.

"Seriously, stop criticising my life choices, right now, I just want to skip maths and get drunk and it's like nine am but I don't fucking care..." Gerard groaned, closing his locker and looking at Lindsey, and then Alicia, and of course, both of them had even a shred of sense and were immediately opposed to the idea.

"Gerard I am not allowing you to make two ridiculously stupid decisions now, come on. Look, first Fr-" Lindsey stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening a little, causing both Alicia and Gerard to turn their heads in the direction of her gaze, and of course, none other Frank Iero himself was sprinting down the corridor.

And then before Gerard knew what was happening, it was utter deja vu, and Frank Iero was tripping and falling in Gerard's direction, practically pinning the seventeen year old against the lockers, and eyes widening as he realised just what had happened, and really, Gerard was just focusing on trying not to get aroused because there was just fucking something about Frank Iero practically slamming him against a locker, even if accidentally, that was going to fuck him over right now.

"Shit... s-sorry..." Frank sighed out, pulling away, leaving Gerard against the locker like a deer stuck in the headlights and Alicia had to slap Lindsey to stop her from giggling, because the sexual tension was soon going to be more obvious than the blush on Gerard's face.

"I-it's o-kayy..." Gerard drew out, catching his breath and finding that he could hardly breathe at all, and seriously, fuck Frank Iero - that was all he wanted to do.

"Frank, what the hell are you doing? I didn't count you as the type to want to get to maths on time." Lindsey burst into a fit of laugh, raising her eyebrows as she looked Frank up and down with a shake of her head.

"I'm not going to maths, I need to fucking get out of here or I will be exorcised or something-"

"What?" Alicia exclaimed, her eyes widening as she fell into a fit of giggles, and then, Frank pulled down his hoodie for the first time that day, revealing the now shaved and bleached sides of his head. And if Gerard wasn't sexually frustrated already, by now he was just about fucked, and really not in the way he would like.

"I need to just bunk off and get high or something seriously - I can't do detention tonight or my mum will kill me. Hey, Lindsey, you know-" Frank burst into a chorus of bullshit explanations: puppy dog eyes aimed at exactly the wrong person.

"Frank, I'm not fucking up my life to provide you with moral support about your ridiculous hairstyle choices, Gerard, however, already has plans to ditch maths and fuck himself up, so I'm sure the two of you will find this to be a wonderful opportunity to spend time together." Gerard was actually going to kill Lindsey for that, but with the way Frank turned to him, almost as if what Gerard had said to him the other week was entirely forgotten, that didn't seem to matter at all.

Maybe this would even be fun. Maybe they could even just be friends.

"Come on then, asshole, we need to talk as well, you know?"

Okay, with that, Gerard immediately took his previous thoughts back.

-

"I'm sorry." Gerard finally choked out into the silence, catching Frank almost by surprise as the two of them walked down the road: destination unknown - Gerard was just following Frank, and Frank was just following his feet.

"For what?" Frank asked, sighing a little as he did so and Gerard couldn't help but be just a little suspicious as to quite where the sixteen year old was going with that. "You've got nothing to be sorry for: I'm hot as fuck - it was unavoidable."

And even Gerard found himself giggling at that, albeit blushing like he never had before. "Shut up." He groaned, letting his fringe fall over his cheeks in an absolutely terrible attempt to disguise the tomato red tint upon his cheeks.

"I'm not wrong though, am I?" Frank smirked, his voice oozing with excessive quantities of egotistical behaviour and self-confidence. "Come on, Gerard Way - tell me I'm wrong."

Gerard only shook his head in Frank's direction, walking a little faster and leaving Frank to grin like the world's biggest idiot. "Where are we even going?" Gerard asked, changing the subject in nothing but an awkward and painful obvious manner.

"You can't, can you?" Frank ignored Gerard's question entirely and moved in front of the seventeen year old, stopping him in his tracks. "You think I'm hot, don't you? I don't blame, you, I-"

"That sounds an awful lot like a gay thing, Iero." Gerard stopped the sixteen year old with that one as Frank almost froze on the spot at the notion of homosexuality, and quite frankly, Frank was being ridiculous.

"It's not a gay thing; you're being so gay, Gerard, that there's just no room for me to be gay, even if I wanted to." Frank over exaggerated his words with stupid gestures and Gerard only shook his head as they continued to make their way down the road: Frank only stopping him when they reached a side road. "We're going to mind - and again, that's not a gay thing."

Gerard only snorted in response, and despite Frank's grin, he really looked like he could and would slap him. "How am I being so gay that it physically drains you of all possible homosexuality?" Gerard asked, and really, this conversation was far too fucking casual for Frank Iero, and something about this was just fucked up, considering that he was technically, well his alter ego was, dating Frank. Gerard had to blame it on the hair, though - the hair was a different story.

"You're very obviously flirting with me, Gerard." And at that, Gerard was practically choking on his own saliva, and when Frank Iero was involved and it was only that he was choking on, he could really be nothing but disappointed.

"You think this is flirting, huh?" Gerard grinned, playing it cool and just wiping over the fact that he was very definitely kind of turned on right now, and again that they were going over to Frank's house, Frank's bedroom- fuck, that was not helping at all.

Frank nodded, smirking like he knew something that Gerard didn't, and really that should have unnerved the seventeen year old in one way or another, but this was just like breakfast with Mikey and that whole grain cereal he ate - Frank was Mikey and it seemed his common sense was just a bowl of whole grain cereal, and it also seemed that he was a connoisseur of nothing other than absolutely pathetic attempts at metaphorical explanations.

"Gone on, then, Gerard, flirt with me. I fucking dare you." Frank met Gerard’s gaze, and the seventeen year old was nothing but dumbstruck at how Frank wasn't blushing like a motherfucker at this point, because he knew that he certainly was.

"If that wasn't a gay thing, then-"

"Shut up. Come on, flirt with me." Frank stopped Gerard in his tracks, and Gerard's head was running crazy as he couldn't quite decipher what this was - it was most likely some kind of extremely fucked up game that Frank had manipulated Gerard into playing with him, but Gerard just couldn't help but hope for more, and he knew that he was nothing but an idiot for it, but that was just how things had to be: his common sense was, after all, nothing but vacant when Frank Iero was around.

"Why?"

"Because I told you too, and you're so fucking head over heels for me that you'll do whatever I say." Frank catch Gerard's gaze with just an ounce of caution as the seventeen year old weighed up just how badly slapping Frank Iero would go for him. "Or is that not true? Can you beat me, huh? Can you outsmart me? Can you flirt with me so much that you actually make me uncomfortable?"

And Gerard could only laugh when it came to outsmarting Frank Iero, because really, the kid was all punk rock and emotional manipulation, and seemed to utterly useless when it came to seeing the difference between a hot punk girl and some emo faggot with just a bit too much make up and a slutty miniskirt on.

"Okay." Gerard exhaled, biting back a smirk, and wondering just how long it would be before Frank Iero killed him.

-

It was nothing other than Frank Iero's stupid, little, not quite so heterosexual, games that lead the two teenagers to approach Frank's house with the younger leaning into Gerard's side, and Gerard's hand having trailed down to rest on his ass.

"You know that your hair looks fucking hot like that - I want to pull it, I want to tangle my fingers in as I fuck you, and I want to pull you up to look up at me with it, because I want to see you when I make you come harder than you ever have before."

And with that, Frank knew that perhaps he'd gotten himself into more than he'd been expecting, and it seemed that Gerard wasn't quite the same awkward, shy dork when it came to fucking, and just what he wanted to do to the sixteen year old.

And perhaps, Frank just couldn't help but wonder just how much of this Gerard was making up, and in turn, just how much of this was nothing other than the blatant truth, because really, this was absolutely nothing but a gay thing, and it was just Frank's ego that stopped him from admitting that.

"Could you stop getting hard over me just long enough for me to unlock the door, huh?" Frank asked, chuckling a little as he pulled away from Gerard and unlocked the door. "Daisy, my dog, she's at the vets today - nothing serious, don't worry, but you won't get slammed against the floor today."

"Oh I wouldn't mind you slamming me against the floor, or anything really." Gerard continued, grinning, and then stopping within instants as he noticed the offward gaze upon Frank's face and the small blush as he began to bite his lip. "This is making you uncomfortable, isn't it? I'm sorry-"

"N-no, Gerard, I'm not that much of a pussy, come on, look-" Frank only blushed further, continuing to care far too much about his reputation as he continued to do nothing but lie through his teeth.

"Shut up, look I'll stop. This was a stupid idea and it's making you uncomfortable because you're straight and I'm just a faggot and I'm sorry that I find you attractive, but yes, Frank, you're right, you're hot as fuck and that's just something I'm going to have to deal with, okay-"

"Shut up." Frank cut Gerard off, blushing a little as he shook his head at the seventeen year old, and the two almost stood frozen in the hallway as they struggled to make eye contact and Frank's heart began to practically beat right out of his chest at just the thought of what he could say next.

"What?" Gerard finally choked out, his heart unknowingly mirroring Frank's and this was every kind of cliché but neither of them fucking cared, because they both nothing but certain that this was exactly how they'd ruin their lives.

"I'm not straight." And it was like someone had dropped some sort of glass bombshell all over the room, and the two stood frozen as not to cut their feet on the broken glass. "I'm not gay, but I'm not- I don't know, Gerard. I don't know what I am, and all I know is that it's doing nothing but killing me."

Gerard just couldn't help but respond with nothing but silence for far too long as he tried his best to convince himself that Frank was joking or something, but there was nothing but sincerity in that beautiful pair of hazel eyes. "So, you're saying that this is a gay thing?"

"Shut up." Frank burst out into a fit of giggles, and despite the fact that he knew his cheeks were nothing but bright red, he really just didn't fucking care, because this was Gerard, and this was just different, and maybe with 'Gee', maybe with his girlfriend he would have cared, but this felt so simple and yet so dangerous and before Frank knew what was happening, his lips were on Gerard's and everything was on fire.

Not literally - that really would have been quite problematic.

Metaphorically, though, yes, and sexually, quite probably.

"Frank-" Gerard didn't quite know how to react at all, and eventually, at his lack of reciprocation, the younger pulled away, staring at Gerard blankly.

"Do you want to kiss me or not? Come on, Gerard, this is a gay thing, this is so fucking gay that there's no way around it - this is the gayest thing ever, and I want this, so come on, shut up and fucking kiss me." Frank pleaded; grinning up at someone would just couldn't quite return the gesture.

"Your girlfriend, Frank." And if anyone was an idiot, it was Gerard, who suddenly found himself prioritising the needs of female alter ego over himself.

"I don't fucking care - I'll dump her, look, come on... I'm not good with girls, this is complicated and fucked up, just ask Mikey: he can probably explain this better than I can-"

"Mikey?" Gerard exclaimed, making no secret about the fact that he was genuinely personally offended when it came to Frank's decision to tell his brother about this 'gay thing' of his, and not him, and then for Mikey not to tell him.

"Look, oh shut up, Gerard. You're fucking with my head, because you're a guy and I like you, and that's not supposed to happen and we... Gerard, please just fucking kiss me, I'm not good with words-"

And then, Gerard went 'fuck it' and did, and he tried not to regret it, he really fucking did, but he just couldn't help but think about Gee and just how willing Frank was to cheat, and whether it would be like this with the actual him, because there was absolutely no fucking way in hell that Gerard was going to be able to deal with that, but-

Fuck, Gerard's mind went blank instantly as he felt Frank's cold fingertips against his hipbones, trailing up under shirt and pulling it over his head, and as the seventeen year old finally managed to recognise and accept what was happening at reality, he pulled Frank away, crossing his arms over his stomach and blushing a little.

"Frank- I..." Gerard trailed off, meeting the sixteen year old's gaze. "I can't do this if it's not serious, and you're just... you're a just a fuck and run kind of person, and Frank I can't do that, I can't do you."

"I'll change-" Frank protested, but Gerard only grabbed his shirt from the sixteen year old and pulled it back over his head.

"You can make a start with explaining how you tried to fuck a guy to this girlfriend of yours, huh? I bet she'll want an explanation as to why she's not good enough so much that you feel the need to cheat on her with some random fucking faggot."

"Ger-"

"I'm going Frank, I'm fucking going. Love isn't a game, Frank, and seriously, grow the fuck up and start giving a damn about other peoples feelings." And with that, the seventeen year old stormed out, making sure to slam Frank's door behind him.

And then, silence, all too long, and Frank was still, and almost fragile, and almost nothing, and he needed, a smoke, a fuck, and some pills, but had neither of three, and fuck, he felt like crying, but he didn't cry, he fucking never cried.

Frank Iero didn't cry, but it seemed that Gerard Way changed that.

-


	12. This Chapter Is Just A Cockblocking Montage (And Bert Isn't Even In It)

Gabe Saporta was always a particularly spectacular asshole, but he really did seem to be outdoing himself today: Gerard had only arrived at theatre ten minutes ago, and the asshole had already made at least six snide comments in his direction.

It certainly looked like someone didn't get laid last night.

Well, not that the world famous virgin, Gerard Way, did either, but whatever, there was a point here, somewhere, probably, hopefully.

Needless to say, the fact that Gerard was wearing a dress wasn't exactly improving things, and he couldn't help but watch as Gabe practically burned holes in his skin with his eyes throughout the entirety of the rehearsal, and even to the point that he was dreading the break, when Gabe wasn't safely frozen into role and was allowed to say whatever he wanted to poor old Gerard Way, who had resorted to hiding in the toilets, which really did backfire because they only had one cubicle and it was occupied, although he could probably pass as a woman like this.

Perhaps it would just take a few minutes of air and space to himself to be okay, and maybe he'd be fine, and maybe Gabe wouldn't ruin his life today, and maybe everything would be totally fine, except then, the door opened, and Gerard's whole world split in two.

"Gerard?" He jumped a little at the voice: definitely not Gabe, but suspicious nonetheless, but whatever, they'd seen him already, and he turned to face a relatively short guy with ginger hair and glass - Patrick, or something. He knew him, but only vaguely.

"Yeah?" Gerard asked, his voice quavering, and letting Patrick beckon him out of the bathroom and into the hallway, nearly tripping on the goddamn dress in the process, of course.

"Gabe needs to talk to you - I know you hate him and stuff, but please, he means well, maybe an apology or something, but he told me that it's important you meet him in the changing rooms like right now." And Patrick was sincere as hell, but suspicious as fuck, and Gerard's heart was beating in double time as he found curiosity getting the better of him.

"Like fuck I'm going to do that." Gerard rolled his eyes, making his way around Patrick and his way down the corridor with the intentions of ignoring the situation completely, but before he knew anything at all, he was being pulled behind a door, and of course it was none other than Gabe fucking Saporta, and Gerard knew nothing like the fact that he was going to get punched in the face within the next ten seconds.

"What the fuck- Gabe? I... just fucking leave me alone - I don't want any trouble and I just don't want to deal with you and this mess-" And needless to say, that was just not a sentence that Gabe allowed Gerard to finish.

"Look, I just need to talk to you- I... I've been a dick, and this is an apology, sort of, but not really... it's just... I'm not sorry, but there's a reason, Gerard, and I'm surprised that you just don't fucking know it yet." Gabe sighed aloud, pulling away from Gerard and letting him stand alone without being pinned up against the wall rather uncomfortably.

"Gabe, what are you even talking about - just leave me alone, please." And Gabe shook his head, because he couldn't.

"You look good in a dress, you know that, don't you?" Gabe sighed out, trailing off and leaving Gerard more confused than he ever had been before. "You always look good. You know. And it's fucking annoying. I fucking hate you." And as Gabe let out a pathetic little gasp of a laugh, Gerard finally put the pieces together and he did so in the worst way, but he did so in the right way.

"Gabe... please don't... I can't-"

"You're a faggot and I'm a guy and I hate how good you look." Gabe sighed out, pulling away and shaking his head: regret, because this wasn't working and Gerard didn't care and he didn't want to be that guy, even though he kind of already was. "I'm such a dick to you because I just can't deal with that."

Gerard shook his head in response, because this was not happening, and yet it was, and his head was spinning like fuck, and his world had just about turned itself over three times in the last two minutes as Gabe's explanation finally seemed to make sense as his reality neared breaking point.

It was honestly too much with Frank, and now this, and really, telling Gerard was an absolutely horrific idea on Gabe's part, and it was usually Gerard who concocted such life-ruining ideas.

"I don't love you, Gabe. I'm sorry, I guess... but you're a dick to me and I like somebody else." Gerard sighed out, making his way towards the door.

"Are you fucking cockblocking me, Way?" Gabe sighed out: humour working as a last resort. And it wasn't even particularly good humour either, which probably explained why it was a last resort.

Gerard sighed out, stopping and meeting Gabe's eyes. "Yes." And just like that, he left, and he broke someone's heart, because Gabe had deserved it.

And although Gerard was no one to decide as to whether someone deserved something or not, his head was still spinning from his encounter with Frank the other day, and he reckoned that it could serve as a perfectly suitable excuse as to why he really wasn't thinking straight.

Not that Gerard ever thought straight.

-

Pete Wentz found himself laid across the living room floor of Mikey Way's house: all too casually holding a spliff in his hand as he muttered along to Iron Maiden in the background.

Needless to say, Mrs Way wasn't home and wasn't going to be for a few hours now; if Pete Wentz was laid on her living room floor smoking weed when she could see him, quite frankly, Mikey wouldn't have been entirely so surprised if she'd ended up murdering the both of them.

You had to feel for Mrs Way sometimes, but of course only sometimes, as there was actually a reason as to why Pete had taken it upon himself to declare Mrs Way's favourite rug his new weed smoking spot.

And that reason was of course none other than something of Mikey's own creation, as the two Way brothers had at least something in common: coming up with incredibly bad and incredibly soul destroying ideas.

Of course, Mikey's idea right now was nowhere near up to the standard of breaking up a band after twelve years with one paragraph, and more along the lines of wanting to fuck this girl he'd vaguely knew, which was of course the most important thing in Mikey's life right now.

"Just ask her over and then move the conversation upstairs, you know, whatever, get stoned or drunk or something if you haven't got the balls." Pete sighed out, continuing to smoke as Mikey sat down at his feet, texting back Frank - something regarding meeting up in a couple of days which generally wasn't at all relevant to the plot, but whatever.

"I've barely even spoken a word to her in my life." Mikey reminded Pete, and thought that perhaps Frank would be the better person to ask about this, ignoring his obvious homosexuality and... crush on Mikey's older brother, which Mikey was approaching with the 'ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist' stance, which surprisingly, was working so far. But then again, just about anyone was better to ask for life advice than a stoned Pete Wentz.

He was probably better asking Gerard about this, and it seemed like his brother was actively trying to ruin his own life right now, but of course, Pete was the only one who'd come and listen to Mikey rant on such short notice, and yeah, Gerard was at theatre right now.

"I've barely spoken a word to your mum in my life and we still got it on last night." Pete met Mikey's gaze for a few seconds as Mikey failed to come to terms with the fact that Pete had actually just said that. And then, of course, Pete was practically choking on his own laughter and Mikey came to conclude that he probably just should've asked his mum for advice about this, as it was difficult to even hold a conversation with stoned Pete, let alone get anything of value out of it.

"Fucking hell. Why are we even friends?" Mikey exclaimed, shaking his head as Pete sat up and offered Mikey the spliff, and even if his mum was going to be home before the effects wore off, he needed this right now, or he was seriously going to end up breaking something that he couldn't quite managed to blame on Gerard, and that would be a seriously disastrous situation.

"Because I didn't sleep with Alicia." Pete reminded him, grinning like an idiot and Mikey began to wonder as to why he ever slept or even associated with Alicia in the first place, especially if she'd just gone and become his brother's fucking best friend for the sake of spiting him, fuck.

"Pete you haven't slept with anyone in the past eight months, and even then it didn't count because there's like an eighty percent chance you're lying." Mikey sighed out, shaking his head and let a smirk slip onto his lips as he found himself stuck in the memory of Pete's extremely elaborate, and of course, entirely true, fuck story.

"What? That was the truth!" Pete exclaimed, of course blushing like hell, and seriously the weed was not helping his case as he nearly fell into Mikey's lap simply due to the fact that he was trying far too hard to keep a straight face.

"I asked you what position you did it in and you replied with 'all of them'." Mikey smirked, raising his eyebrows and leaving Pete to stumble out with some poor attempt at an excuse. "That's not physically possible."

"And you would know?" Pete asked, giggling like an idiot and just letting his head fall into Mikey's lap: grinning up at his best friend, as Mikey simply gave up and decided that trying to get Pete to move would be entirely more effort than it was worth and just accepted that he was going to stay there.

"Yeah, I've fucked more girls than I can count, remember?" Mikey shook his head, catching Pete's gaze for a moment and hating how much this seemed to mattered and hating Pete for getting stoned in his living room and providing him with shitty advice, and dear god, if his mum came home early, but none of that seemed to matter, because Pete was his best friend, and dear god, the guy was a fucking idiot beyond belief, but Mikey would still always care about him.

And he really didn't sleep with Alicia, which was wonderful.

"Then why are you asking me for advice on fucking someone?" Pete asked the rather obvious question, and Mikey found himself with an 'I don't know' dangerously close to escaping his lips as he came to the rather puzzling conclusion that in fact he didn't have a fucking close as to why he'd thought it necessary to involve Pete in this and ensure that the living room rug smelled like dope, and-

"Holy shit, it's Frank Iero! Mikey! Mikey-" And what a wonderful way to ruin the moment, not that there was a moment in Mikey's mind, of course, no homo and all of that, you know, not like this is gay fanfiction or anything.

And, Pete was in fact correct, and not hallucinating, which was good news for the both of them really, because that was just something that Mikey did not want to deal with right now.

Mikey left Pete lying on the floor like an idiot as he got up and made his way over to the door, letting Frank in as he rang the doorbell and finding himself slightly overwhelmed as Frank practically started weeping into his shoulder, and dear god, Pete was gazing, starstruck from the living room like Frank was Barack fucking Obama.

"Frank... Jesus Christ, what's wrong?" Mikey exclaimed, attempting to pull the sobbing emo mess away from his best shirt, because he really did not want eyeliner stains on that thing, and it was rather unlikely that Frank would be at all inclined to pay for a new one.

"I fucked up so fucking much- fuck, Mikey, I-" Frank pulled away, his gaze stopping upon Pete, who was sat cross legged in the middle of Mikey's living room, now in the process of rolling himself another spliff, which was of course, nothing but a terrible idea, but Mikey found himself a little too preoccupied with Frank to stop him. "Hey..." Frank dragged out awkwardly, addressing Pete.

"Hey." Pete's face fell into an enormous grin: seemingly far too high to even take into account the fact that Frank was quite clearly fucking sobbing. "Would you like some weed?"

Frank fell into laughter at first, a little taken a back, as Mikey found himself considering just how appealing slamming his head against that wall felt right now. "Yeah, actually. That'd be great."

"Oh yes, the best way to deal with all your fucking problems - get so stoned that you can barely remember your own name. And oh yes, let's do it in Mikey's house so that his mum kills him when she gets home and the house smells like it should belong to Bob fucking Marley." Mikey grumbled, but Frank couldn't quite taken him seriously at the promise of free weed, only giving him a gentle shove as he went and sat down beside Pete, who Frank was now referring to as his new best friend.

It was probably quite concerning as to just how many of Frank's friendships had initiated with either him giving or being given weed, or another illegal substance of some sort.

"Are you actually going to talk to me about how you fucked up or just smoke some weed, huh?" Mikey asked, sitting down beside the two of them, and wishing he wasn't such an asshole so he had more friends that he could text and complain to about his current first world problems regarding an excess of weed and just how much deodorant he was going to have to use to get rid of the fucking smell.

"I'd rather not think about it, but... I kind of cheated on my girlfriend, and fuck..." Frank froze, almost as if the truth had only really just dawned upon him. "I fucking cheated on my fucking girlfriend- fuck, I knew- I just... everyone's fucking right when they say that I'm not more than a whore, aren't they? Fuck... I... just... f- fuck... I'm fucking broken and fucking fucked up, don't even fucking lie to me, Mikey, I-"

"Frank, you're lying to yourself here." Mikey sighed out, knowing that he would regret giving Frank the advice that he'd be better off dating his brother, but there was simply no way around it right now. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to accept yourself and feel okay if you kept lying to yourself like this... you're..." Mikey turned to Pete, who was making no secret of just how intently he was listening in to what was a rather private conversation.

"But... I care about her... she's different- I-.... maybe I love her." Frank stumbled over his words as he struggled to accept the truth, his vision blurring a little as his eyes began to strain as a result of holding back too many tears.

"Yeah, you love her enough to cheat on her?" Mikey couldn't help but scoff, turning to Pete and giving him a look, which of course, Pete was entirely far too high to even consider processing. "Who did you cheat on her with, though?"

And almost as if right on cue, Gerard Way arrived home, pushing the door open with entirely too much vigour, as he really did not expect his brother to be having some kind of weed orgy in the living room.

And Frank just gave Mikey a look.

And that wall was looking ever so much more promising.

"Mikey, you fucking left the door unlocked!" Gerard yelled up the stairs, obviously not having noticed the three teenagers sat in the living room, and of course only doing so as he locked the door behind him and turned in their direction. "Oh... hey..."

"Hey." Mikey sighed out, swallowing hard as he tried his best to handle the newfound information of that Frank had basically fucking cheated on his brother's alter ego with his brother, and fucking hell, they were both so stupid that Mikey even came close to considering just blurting it all out right now, but Pete would probably be a problem.

"Frank, are you crying?" Gerard exclaimed, eyes widening, almost in horror, because he cared about the sixteen year old more than he'd ever care to admit. "Fuck, what's wrong?" He found himself rushing over and sitting down between his brother and Frank, leaving Mikey to bit down on his bottom lip to refrain from punching someone in the face here.

"It's fine - I'm fine... Pete made me laugh... I'm good... I..." Frank's excuses were worth nothing, and Gerard was supposed to hate him, but he was never very good at expressing any sort of negative emotion towards Frank Iero.

"You're a shitty liar - that's what." Gerard sighed out, shaking his head, refusing to break Frank's gaze, and leaving Mikey to dig his own grave beside them. "Fuck, Mikey, is that- weed? What the fuck? You know what-"

"It's Pete's." Mikey sighed out, getting up and glaring at Frank, only shrugging in Pete's direction, who appeared to be far too stoned to be even conscious of what was happening at this point. "I'm getting a drink." He made the first excuse he could to leave the room, and within seconds, Pete somehow caught on.

"Me too." He added, getting up and taking the weed with him, leaving Frank to be the one to dig his own grave as he found himself face to face with the one person who'd ever managed to make him cry.

-

Frank and Gerard sat in silence for entirely too long: a silence comprised of stop and start heartbeats and looks held for far too long, as neither of the two found themselves with the guts to actually admit how they felt and just what was going on.

And as Gerard heard the backdoor slam throughout the house, he knew within instants that Mikey had been enough of an asshole to fucking leave him alone with Frank, and dear god, if he wasn't dead already, he was most certainly digging his own grave at this point.

Silence continued like there was nothing else left, and Gerard wondered just what he'd done so fucking wrong to deserve this, and then before either of them could figure anything out at all, Frank was fucking crying and Gerard was pulling him into his side like a reflex.

And it was wrong and it was fucked up, but it didn't matter, because to Gerard, Frank mattered so much more than anything else did.

"I fucked up, Gerard, fuck I'm so sorry- I... I can't do this to you, I- I can't do this to myself, I-I... I can't do this to myself... I-" And Frank's words meant nothing as they were pressed into and muffled into Gerard's side, because it wasn't what he'd done, but Frank himself that mattered, well either that, or Gerard was a lovestruck idiot.

"It's okay. It's not my fault that I... that I... have feelings for you, Frank... you're right, you're cute and I'm an absolute idiot and I think we should just forget that and get back to being friends, okay?" Gerard sighed out; forcing the truth back inside, even if it ended up killing him in the end.

"But I don't want to just be friends, Gerard... I... hate it, but there's no way around the fact that I have feelings for you too."

And Gerard held his breath as his heart sunk through the floor, because this was not how it was supposed to go: it was never supposed to work out and now Gerard couldn't cope, because Gee still mattered, and he couldn't just let Frank fuck people over like this, even if that person he was fucking over wasn't real at all.

"You have a girlfriend." Gerard hated to remind him, turning every little spark into nothing more than ashes, and that was all they were: ashes and a could have been, and that was all because they were all spark with no fire - nothing to burn but their own desire, and that desire was soon to crumble as gazes pulled away and Frank stop breathing for a few seconds and Gerard stop believing, forever.

"I know." It was almost a confession, yet one Gerard knew all too well, and still it felt necessary, even if it brought nothing more than heavy sighs and averted gazes for the next thirty seconds as Gerard racked his brains for anyway at all in which he could break the spell of silence that had been cast upon them.

"You haven't dumped her and you're basically asking me to be your boyfriend, and really just fucking think about what kind of impression you're making. Fucking think about how I just can't trust you, and just fucking think about how hard it is for me not to kiss you right now, but I'm fucking managing, and yet, you're insistent upon flirting with me, fucking flirting with everyone - fucking go see your girlfriend and fucking sort this shit out with her, because I can't deal with this, Frank. Believe me, I can't."

"I'm just a whore - I know." Frank exhaled in acceptance: taking it the wrong way, and pulling himself away from the seventeen year old that he couldn't help but fall in love with, and really, here, he'd fucked everything up, and the carpet still smelled like weed, and that was his fault and still a problem that Gerard would have to deal with.

"No, that's not what I'm saying, Frank." Gerard sighed, pulling himself together and grabbing Frank by the arm in a gesture that screamed nothing more than 'stay', and just longed to scream 'I love you too', and it hurt, because everything hurt, and this was the kind of 'I love you' that you had to apologise for. "I just... I don't want to be a part of you cheating on someone."

"If I dump her, can we talk about this then?" Frank asked, his eyes lighting up a little as Gerard's stomach threw itself into a fit of somersaults.

He knew that the right answer was no, and yet nothing felt right anymore and that's exactly where the "yes," came from.

"Is that a promise?" Frank asked, meeting Gerard's gaze, almost expectantly, and really, no, it wasn't, and yet it had to be, and Gerard couldn't say no to that smile, and he was already far in love to have any hope of making it out alive.

"I guess." He sighed out, meeting Frank's gaze and noticing how the sixteen year old moved closer to him, and then placed his hand over Gerard's, and the seventeen year old's heart did that stupid fluttery thing that made him want to die, but he was already dying, because he was fucking himself over here.

This was all he'd ever wanted and all he could never have all at the same time and his head was spinning as he tried to regulate his breathing and look Frank Iero in the eyes at the same time.

"Kiss me. Please." Frank moved in closer and Gerard could feel his breath on his lips and everything went apeshit from then on as the sixteen year old didn't even wait for an answer, taking his nervous, lovestruck silence to be just that as he leaned in, and then just as everything was all sparks and fireworks - devoid of ashes.

Just as everything was perfect, everything fell apart in the form of the front door opening and Mrs Way walking in: stopping dead in her tracks as the smell of weed hit her, closely followed by the sight of her eldest son kissing a boy in her living room.

And Mikey wasn't even home to take the blame.

-


	13. Gerard Way The Overgrown Emo Baby

Needless to say, this wasn't exactly the best situation that Gerard Way had found himself in, and really, Frank's presence, in fact, did nothing but make the whole damn ordeal a whole lot worse.

Because, poor old Mrs Way wasn't quite anticipating that after a long, hard day at work, to walk into her own home and first of all, have a damn strong smell of weed hit her, only then to be faced with the unavoidable scene in the living room: her eldest son practically making out with a boy.

Okay, they were far off making out, but it had been a particularly stressful day and the weed smell was really not helping.

"Mum- I..." Gerard was caught like a deer in the headlights, and reckoned getting hit by a truck was the preferable option right now, but the safety of metaphor never quite brought that kind of reassuring consequence. "I..." And there was not a single word in Gerard Way's vocabulary that could quite stretch to explain the situation to his poor old mother.

Frank was left in the rather awkward situation of just sitting there: red cheeked and cross legged, trying to come off the least like an asshole as possible and praying that Mrs Way wasn't one of those mothers who would strangle him and exorcise him without a second's thought.

"Please don't tell me that's weed I smell, I mean, Mikey, kind of would expect this from, but you’re the oldest, you're supposed to be sensible and mature, and not kiss random guys in my living room, for god's sake, Gerard-" She shook her head, pausing for a moment, before making her way into the living room.

"It wasn't him with the weed, okay." Frank sighed out, piping up and ready to get slapped for it - by someone, anyone, but perhaps, just maybe, Gerard Way did stupid things to his head and maybe that was just something he was stuck with accepting.

Mrs Way raised her eyebrows in Frank's direction, not sure quite what to make of the boy, which the first impression she'd had of was seeing him kissing her eldest son. "Do explain."

"It was Mikey, well me too, but Gerard doesn't do drugs, I promise you that - he's a massive loser, everyone knows that." Gerard couldn't help but consider shoving Frank for that 'massive loser' part, but he knew that now was really not the time.

"Mikey's not here, is he?" Mrs Way sighed out, and Frank got up, meeting her eye level, and really, Gerard was just about to punch himself in the face here as he got up too.

"Frank, please-" He tried, he really did, but Frank made it all too evident that he wasn't at all interested, and that he was prepared to go down like a fucking idiot for Gerard.

"Mikey was here, look... it's really complicated, Mrs Way, I'm sorry... I. Look, Mikey and his friend Pete were here first and they were the ones with the weed and then I came over a little later to see Mikey, and weed was involved, and Gerard came home at an entirely different point - he had absolutely nothing to do with the drugs, I promise you, Mrs Way." Frank sighed out, past the point of even wondering just why he was doing this at this point. "Mikey and Pete left after Gerard arrived."

"Why?" She asked, looking between the two of them, still unsure as to just what to make of this 'Frank'.

"Because Mikey knows how I feel about Gerard and he was just being an asshole about it." Frank sighed out, biting down on his lip and making a point to look everywhere but Gerard's direction.

"What-" Gerard jerked up at that, eyes widening, but Mrs Way most certainly did not have the time for this. 

"Okay, fine. I'm getting Mikey home right now. I'd appreciate it if you could stay here... Frank, was it?" She sighed out, glancing between her son and what she assumed was his boyfriend once again.

Frank nodded in response. "Okay." He exhaled loudly as Mrs Way turned away, pulling out her cellphone and calling Mikey, presumably.

"Why the hell did you do that, Frank?" Gerard's voice came out in a hushed shriek, as he pulled Frank away into the corner. "You've just got yourself involved and my mum's going to hate you now and Mikey's going to hate me now, look it'd be better if I was just grounded for a few weeks, okay?"

"What? And get in trouble for something that wasn't even you?" Frank exclaimed, grabbing Gerard by the hands. "That's ridiculous - you're being fucking ridiculous, Gerard." He sighed out, pulling his gaze away from the seventeen year old.

"No, I'm just being sensible about this, look I haven't got time for this mess right now, I- I just- hey, what did you even mean when you said Mikey knew how you felt about me?" Gerard grabbed Frank by the wrist at that point, forcing their gazes to meet as he became certain in the fact that he would no longer accept silence as an answer.

"I told him. Because this is all too much with you: it's all head over heels and staring at you when I think you're not looking, and I want to kiss you all the time, Gerard, this just wasn't enough- look, I can't take this... I'm not good with being rejected and I'm not at all comfortable with my sexuality or who I am, but you're so at ease with yourself, and that's just fucking amazing, you're fucking amazing, Gerard, and I just can't help but feel how I feel about you."

Frank sighed out, considering the easiest way to kill himself in the next few seconds, and soon finding that no such easy exit solution was possible: he couldn't take his words back, and perhaps, just for once, he'd have to face his own mistakes.

"Why the bloody hell did you tell Mikey, though? And why did he not tell me?" Gerard exclaimed, pulling away from Frank: his head racing - thinking about why he should kiss Frank, and why he shouldn't, and always about just how his mum was in the other room.

This really wasn't the best time for this, to say the least.

"Because have you not thought for one tiny little second, Gerard Way, that not everything's about you?" Frank sighed out, pulling away and giving up in nothing more than a perfect display of a pathetic teenage boy's hormones overriding his thoughts.

"Fuck you, Iero. Fucking fuck you."

Gerard pulled away, ignoring Frank and making his way into the kitchen, standing beside his mother, who was leaned against the kitchen counter, watching the back door for Mikey's return.

"Gerard..." She sighed out, not at all sure as to what she could even begin with.

"Look, please, just don't get Mikey into too much trouble for this, he's going to hate me for snitching and I just can't deal with that right now, I've got too much, mum, I've got-" She didn't quite let her son finish, catching Frank's gaze in the doorway: something that Gerard hadn't quite noticed.

"It's Frank. You love him, that's obvious, he feels that way about you too. It's all obvious, okay. I know, I know that I don't exactly approve of homosexuality and I'd rather you were happy with a girl, but that's not you, Gerard, you've been through so much, and the only thing I want of you right now is you happy. He's going to make you happy." Mrs Way sighed, wondering just how on earth she'd made her way to this from walking in and smelling weed.

"But I'm scared, I messed everything up - I already know how he feels, but this is messed up, mum. Okay, he's got a girlfriend, but-... I... not really, I... and I can't... I just can't... I can't do this..." And before Gerard even got the chance to cry, Frank's arms were around him, and the seventeen year old let the sixteen year old pull him into his chest as Frank and Gerard's mother shared a glance: an 'I trust you' kind of thing, and Frank reckoned he'd done pretty good considering the circumstances.

"Gerard, come on, you're okay, please don't cry." Frank whispered the words to the seventeen year old overgrown emo baby he held against his chest, trying not to think about the stains he'd receive as Gerard's eyeliner ran.

"I'm sorry." Gerard sighed out, forcing his head against Frank's chest, nuzzling his neck a little, and it was nearly flirting, and they were kind of okay, but not really, and really, Gerard just needed to get better at lying to himself, or just living without lying to Frank Iero in a miniskirt, because, like this, he was going to kill himself for sure.

And before Gerard even got the chance to relax in Frank's arms, Mikey was making his way inside with the world's biggest scowl on his face, because, god, he was not happy to be busted for weed for the fucking second time.

"So, Mikey, an explanation?" Mrs Way made her way over to her youngest son, eyebrows raised as she directed him to the living room: still pungent with the smell of weed. "About this smell and about what I've heard."

"So, Gerard just gets out of everything because he's got a sob story and the drama skills to bring it to life?" Mikey snapped, glaring in his brother's direction, and leaving Frank very much startled in the middle as he found himself torn between one of his best friends and the boy he loved, but the boy who wouldn't admit, for some godforsaken reason, that he loved Frank back.

"It was your weed - both Frank and Gerard have said so." Mrs Way made it clear that she wasn't taking any shit with a stern glance in her son's direction. "Any explanation as to why you thought smoking weed in my living room was a good idea?"

"It was Pete's idea." Mikey shrugged it off, avoiding his mother and all the blame he could - it wasn't working, of course, but nothing was going to stop Mikey Way from trying, even fucking common sense. "You weren't supposed to come home this early."

"You weren't supposed to be smoking weed in the first place, come on, was the first time not enough?" She sighed out, making her way back into the kitchen and leaving Mikey to follow her. "Come on, hand over whatever you've got on you."

Mikey only shrugged it off, taking a seat and scowling at Frank as he continued to hold his now only sniffling brother against his chest: Gerard's head was still spinning, and he reckoned that he wouldn't be able to function with Frank holding him like this for a good few hours now.

"Come on, Mikey, I'm not an idiot." She sighed out, and Mikey eventually gave in, digging in his pockets and handing her a little bag of weed. "What I'm supposed to do with this, I just don't know."

"Keep it for when you really need it - basically, when he does this again." Frank couldn't help but add, leaving Mrs Way to decide that she liked Frank Iero, and Mikey Way to decided that he hated the sixteen year old: sure, he was allowed to like his brother, but actually be on his side and get this cosy with him? No, that was not allowed; he was Mikey's friend.

"Oh, yeah, Iero, because you're the perfect angel boy, aren't you? Name one person you haven't slept with? Name one drug you haven't done?" Mikey decided the only sensible way to deal with this situation was, of course, taking it out on Frank.

"I haven't slept with you, Mikey. I haven't done heroin. Are you happy, or do you need to make other people look bad any more?" Frank sighed out, leaving Mrs Way unsure as to whether she should be intervening or not.

"Look, can we just leave this? Mikey you're grounded for two weeks - just quit the whole drug thing, okay, it makes you look like an idiot and you're going to be dead by thirty." She sighed out, Mikey rolling his eyes and making his way upstairs to be incredibly edgy and angsty as he blasted music loud enough to ensure that everyone suffered enough hearing damage to fuck them over with healthcare bills.

"Frank, you can stay for dinner if you want or whatever. I'm going to go do some gardening, okay?" Mrs Way sighed out, finally taking her coat off as she made her way out into the garden leaving Gerard and Frank alone for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Are you okay?" Frank was the first to break the silence.

Gerard didn't answer his question, but he was by no means silent either, meeting the sixteen year old's gaze, and saying the three words that would mean so much more than anything ever had before. "I love you."

-

Of course, to Mikey Way, the word 'grounded' meant absolutely nothing.

Other words included in the list of words that meant nothing to Mikey Way: secret, taken, lesbian, and many others, since it was well, Mikey.

It hadn't even been at all difficult to sneak out that night: his mother had gone straight to bed after having dealt with far too much today, and Gerard had locked himself in his bedroom to go have an existential crisis of some sort that was incredibly likely to relate, somehow, to Frank Iero.

Mikey was beyond tried of hearing about Frank Iero and especially of the asshole throwing him in the shit, and just for the sake of getting fucking brownie points with Mikey's fucking brother, who was stupid enough to keep fucking himself over here.

Mikey was just about certain in the fact that Gerard was nothing more than an absolute idiot - sure, he got good grades and sure he managed, but when it came to the things that mattered, to him at the very least, he was nothing short of the world's biggest fucking embarrassment.

And the fifteen year old just didn't know if he should be feeling sorry for Frank or Gerard here, or just whatever fucked up bearded dude in the sky had to watch their every awkward and screwed up interaction.

Maybe he should just burn all of Gerard's fucking miniskirts and force his brother to grow some fucking balls for once, but really, Mikey just didn't do nice things to assholes who got him grounded, even if grounded did mean absolutely nothing to him: punishment was like shitty birthday presents - it was the thought that counted.

His mother had tried to keep him from having fun, but the bottle of wine he grabbed from the freezer on his way out was nothing more than a big old 'fuck you' to everyone and everything, and really just some motivation for Pete to actually get out of his fucking house.

And throwing rocks at Pete's window was just what Mikey would call a little too gay.

Of course, sneaking out to see him? Nope, nothing gay about that. Totally heterosexual, yes. Why anyone would even suspect the slightest whiffs of homosexuality here was genuinely beyond him.

So, just like his brother, and really everyone else, Mikey Way was a fucking idiot, and this whole night would be nothing more than a source for that idiocy to thrive upon.

-

"This isn't even nice wine - fucking fuck you, Mikey Way." Pete's words were already beginning to slur, and Mikey was already beginning to find so much more interest in his cellphone as the two teenagers made their way across the park in the dark: navigating via the flashlight on Mikey's phone, because really, they were fucking hardcore.

"And yet you're still drinking it." Mikey highlighted the obvious, his tone beyond sarcastic, but Pete was too tipsy to notice and too much of himself to care - their friendship really did work, most of the time at the very least: when Alicia Simmons wasn't involved, basically.

Mikey couldn't help but notice just how much better his life had gotten since Alicia had fucked off to his brother, but that wasn't something he was ever going to stoop to the level of admitting, because he wasn't going to let Gerard think that he could just steal his friends like that, especially his girlfriend, even though he was gay, Gerard still fucking stole her, kind of. Well, Mikey was more than prepared to blame it on his brother, so in his mind, he very well did.

"It's alcohol. Of course I am - don't be fucking stupid." Pete giggled like an idiot, taking a swig, offering it to Mikey only momentarily, and not even bothering to hide how fucking pleased he was when Mikey shook his head: he'd be fucked if his mother caught him coming back, let alone if she caught him coming back drunk. "Have you decided if you're going to fuck the girl yet?"

Mikey only shrugged in response as the two of them made their way to the kids park, sitting down on the swings, and Mikey tried his best not to make a big deal of rolling his eyes as Pete continued to cling to the wine bottle like a young child and their teddy bear, as he got on the swing.

"You're going to smash that bottle and I am not taking you to hospital at fucking midnight, okay, you got that, Pete?" Mikey found himself in an oddly maternal position for just a few seconds as he finally convinced Pete to put the bottle down, leaving him to grin up at his best friend like an absolute fucking idiot.

"But what if I was dying, Mikey?" And he continued deadly fucking serious, yet with a tone similar to one of a fucking five year old.

"Then maybe, just maybe, I'd reconsider, but only if you were really dying." Mikey sighed out, wishing Pete would just quit with the stupid questions - he didn't sneak out at midnight for no reason, well he kind of did, but he wasn’t going to admit that any time soon: Mikey had an angsty, hardcore, 'no one understands me' facade to maintain.

"What if I just felt like dying?" Pete sighed out, alcohol affecting his words, but not drowning them out completely.

"Pete, what the fuck are you saying here?" Mikey jumped a little at that, watching as Pete almost seemed to shrug the whole idea off completely, leaving the sober of the two to leave the thoughts lingering at the back of his mind, as he could never quite forget a single word his best friend said.

And just like that, Pete turned away, and this was silence, and even this time without the help of alcohol.

And Mikey started to think that he should have gone to that party tonight instead, even if it was a fucking shitty party and even if he did fucking hate the girl hosting it. He'd probably even get laid there, but now with too much silence and not enough alcohol, Pete Wentz had became the world's biggest cryptic little shit with the power to break the whole world's heart.

"Do you love this girl or is it just a fuck thing?" Pete broke the silence with irrelevance, and at first, Mikey was just so grateful that they were speaking again that he didn't even stop to overlook the sudden change of subject.

"Probably just a fuck thing - she'll probably ensure that. I wouldn't mind dating her, I guess, but she's not the kind of girl, and I'm still kind of fucked up from when you fucked Alicia."

"I didn't fuck Alicia." Pete protested for the seven hundredth time.

"Can you just say you did, because it makes me feel better?" And here was that classic fifteen year old Mikey Way logic once again.

"What the fuck?" Pete stopped for a moment; because he was nowhere near drunk enough to actually make sense of this, and it was easily doubted that he ever would be. "Explain to me how that works."

"Because then she cheated on me, and then I don't feel like the asshole. And I do, I feel like the fucking asshole. I'm always the asshole, Pete - surely that isn't fair." Mikey sighed out, confessing too much for the one who hadn't been drinking. "I'm an asshole though, I just am, aren't I? My head's fucking fucked - just tell me what to believe - tell me who I am, tell me who I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to feel."

"Don't fuck the girl." Pete sighed out, swinging a little as he did so, and Mikey was just praying like hell that this wasn't going to be the start of the second excessive and unexplained silence.

"Why?"

"Because it'll fuck you up and it'll fuck me up too and not everything's about fucking cute girls is it? For me, especially, not everything is about fucking cute girls." Pete was really nearing the fucking line here, and it was just the alcohol that had him tipsy enough to just about tip over it.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Mikey sighed out, soon deeming it easier just to ignore Pete altogether: he was drunk, and Mikey should have been drunk too, and it was midnight, and Mikey was only here for the sake of rebelling and that prided teenage angst. "You're too fucking drunk, you know. I'm bringing you ribena next time."

"I'm not drunk, Mikey, I'm just-" Pete stopped, exhaling all too loudly and meeting his best friend's gaze for entirely longer than necessary, but maybe, just maybe, he didn't care. "Mikey, you're not an asshole. But you could be one if you act like an asshole now."

"Pete what the hell are you saying?" Mikey watched as Pete got up from the swing, knocking the wine bottle over in the process: it was empty now, and Mikey couldn't quite decipher as to whether that was for the better or the worse.

"Not everything's about fucking cute girls, I mean, for me, sometimes, just sometimes, it's about fucking cute boys too." And silence, silence like never fucking before, and heartbeats: louder than ever before, and gazes that met too much and too little at the same time. It was like clockwork, but still out of time.

Mikey's heart was heavy, Pete's was heavier.

"Fucking hell, everyone's fucking gay." And that was not the worst reaction Pete could have received, not the best, of course, but judging by the fact that this was Mikey, he did pretty damn good as far as reactions go.

"So you're okay with that?" Pete sighed out; blushing and grinning like a fucking idiot, as Mikey could do nothing more than roll his eyes.

"My brother's the world's biggest faggot - I've hardly got all that much choice here, have I?" Mikey exaggerated his words, leaving Pete feeling the world's biggest fucking idiot, but the world's happiest, biggest fucking idiot.

Because he cared far too much about Mikey Way, and his stupid fucking opinion and his stupid fucking smile.

"I'm only bi though, I guess anyway. I still like girls though-"

"Yeah, I fucking know what bisexual is, Pete - I'm not a fucking idiot - sit the fuck back down, alright. Stop making this a big deal, it really isn't." Mikey sighed out, shaking his head, and generally unable to stop himself wondering as to just how much of this was down to that bottle of wine that he prayed his mother would notice going missing: if she did, well, Mikey just had to try his best to blame that on Gerard before inevitably admitting defeat.

"But it is." Pete sighed out, kicking the floor with the toes of his sneakers, and Mikey was beyond done with the asshole by now, but he listened nonetheless, because Pete was his best friend for a reason.

Admittedly, that reason was the fact that he introduced him to Alicia last year, but whatever, it was a reason nonetheless.

"And how exactly is that, Pete?" Mikey sighed out, forcing eye contact with his best friend.

"Because, I like a guy, and I really like him, and he doesn't like me, he doesn't even like guys and it's- it's what makes me feel like dying on the inside-"

"I'm not calling a fucking ambulance, Romeo, look come on, we'll talk about this in the morning - I'm tired." Mikey exhaled, standing up and pulling Pete off the swing by his head, leaving an awkward moment between the two where they stood just too close together as they met one another's eyes.

And it was down to the fucking alcohol that Pete lost his balance, and somehow, of course, not intentionally, his lips ended up on Mikey's.

And in the dark: they blew up in a bright light.

But not like fireworks, this was a ticking time bomb, and it had just exploded.

-


	14. Frank Gets A 'D' In Art

It was just fucking perfect: flying and heartbeats and fireworks and everything anyone could ever dream of, outside of school and inside of Gerard's head that was.

Frank was so much more of an asshole when he came to remember that he had some shitty reputation to keep up, and when, well really, he got bored of making sure that Gerard was alright, and when he decided that a heartfelt, destructive confession like that was just enough chaos for that day.

Because, although it may have been 'I love you's and almost kissing before, but today, the world's worst Monday, they found themselves back on square one: Frank with everything and Gerard with nothing - head spinning as he came to realise that placing his affections in Gabe Saporta would have been a better idea.

Fucking Gabe Saporta.

Exactly, fucking Gabe Saporta would have been a better idea than even speaking to Frank Iero but it seemed as if the only fucking lesson Gerard had on his timetable was that shitty ass art lesson in which he just magically had to be sat beside Frank Iero, who just had to be late and arrive at exactly the same time as Gerard did.

Of course, ensuring another awkward moment, and kick-starting the sinking feeling deep in Gerard's stomach.

"Sorry." Frank muttered - head down: it meant nothing and Gerard could assume the same for just about everything else the sixteen year old had ever said to him. Frank Iero was a fucking asshole, and perhaps it was just better for him to accept that later rather than never.

"About what? The fact that you're being the world's biggest asshole?" Gerard snapped: voice hushed and words in contrast to Frank's - far from meaningless. This was everything and Gerard didn't want it to be: it was nothing short of a vicious cycle and Gerard hated to admit that he was trapped.

"No, because I bumped into you." Frank fucking smirked at him, before pushing past and into the art room, leaving the seventeen year old stood there for entirely far too long as he struggled to process just what had just happened, and how he'd hated Frank Iero for it, and how, he just didn't.

And in consequence, how that wasn't nearly as much of a problem as it should have been.

Gerard was screwed to say the least: he was falling in love and it was killing him, and really he was at the point where he would have preferred such a statement to be literal rather than metaphorical, because stabbing a knife through his own chest would have been more fun than going in and sitting beside Frank Iero for the next two hours.

But Gerard was a fucking coward and he couldn't stand to ditch school again, because well, his mum wasn't exactly his biggest fan right now, and yeah, Gerard was just fucking scared, and perhaps making eye contact with that French teacher who hated him: the one with the seventy inch high heels and coat of what he couldn't help suspect was real animal fur, perhaps even making eye contact with the bitch was worse than going inside the art room.

And he hated her, because momentarily, her presence had made him forget about Frank Iero and that stupid fucking 'I hate you, fuck the world and your sanity' glare he got as he walked in, of course coupled with a smirk that just about messed him up completely.

"Late, are we, Gerard?" The teacher raised one eyebrow in Gerard's direction as he reluctantly sat down beside Frank. "Stay after school please." Gerard was utterly screwed, and Frank only fucking laughed and of course, there wasn't a chance in hell that the teacher would notice that.

And from then on, it was sketching and silence: at least between the two of them - the room was busy and everyone else was captured in their own stupid conversations and there was probably some unfortunate fuckboy at the other end of the room flicking white paint onto his jeans, only to be teased about it for the rest of time.

But maybe silence was okay and maybe just complete and utter ignorance in regard to one another's existence was simply the way forward, and Gerard had done a pretty good job of convincing himself so, just right up until the part when he reached for his eraser, leaning in Frank's direction as he did so, his eyes catching the younger's work, and instantly regretting it: letting out a hitched little gasp, and Frank stopped, chuckling, but not meeting Gerard's gaze.

"You've drawn me." Gerard broke the silence to point out the obvious, dragging out his breath as he attempted to compose himself at the image before him.

"Yeah, nice to know that it's good enough that you recognised it." Frank added, sketching a few more lines of his drawing and really Gerard began to wonder just how he hadn't been kicked out of this class yet, considering that all he ever seemed to draw was porn, and despite depicting Gerard, Frank's latest creation was no exception.

"Frank you can't draw that." Gerard insisted, his eyes widening as he seemed to abandon his own work: a fucking flower vase, for the sake of admiring- staring at Frank's.

"So, do you think I've got your orgasm face right or not?" Frank asked, all too fucking casually and completely ignoring the older boy's complaints. "I mean, I don't exactly have it to work from so it's not going to be perfect, but, I'm fucking try- hey, do you think you could model for me?"

And right then, Gerard really fucking wished he wasn't the wimpiest little shit ever because never before had Frank Iero warranted a slap across the face just as much.

Frank's truly wonderful art piece depicted a teenage boy with dark hair and hazel eyes and far too pale skin from the waist up: the sleeves of a black hoodie rolled up at his elbows and pale forearms stretching down out of the frame - the expression upon his face making it entirely too clear as to just where those hands were, and the shitty ass 'Smiths' shirt, which Gerard was wearing today, making it entirely too clear as to who the subject was.

Gerard could only wonder just how on earth Frank hadn't been kicked out of this art class yet - perhaps he was fucking the teacher: Gerard wouldn't deem it unlikely.

"You're going to get kicked out of class for that." Gerard noted, exhaling loudly and breaking another extended period of silence. "Frank, I swear to god, you're going to get kicked out of school for this."

"Model for me, Gerard Way." Frank sighed out, ignoring Gerard's warnings entirely, as in a head like Frank's, warnings meant next to nothing. "If I'm going to get kicked out for this, then it's going to be worthwhile and it's going to be good. It's going to be brilliant."

"I swear to god that minutes ago you were glaring at me like you hated me, like I was nothing, like we were back to before we were friends and then yesterday it was 'I love you' and-" Gerard choked out: his words far too fast and his head beginning to spin, and really, he reckoned that if he didn't get out of here soon he was going to be on the verge of throwing up all over Frank's work, which, however, in this case, wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I didn't expect you to actually say it back - I thought you were far too stubborn for that." Frank exhaled, continuing to add colour to his work- to Gerard's hair. "But, I've done some thinking, which is odd for me, and we could work, Gerard Way, like I've thought about it properly, I've only thought about it within the realms of my bedroom, my imagination, and just as a messed up secret, but maybe I want to properly date you instead of just fuck you, and that's weird. But I want to fuck you too, and most of all, right now, I want to see what you look like when you're coming."

"And how on earth are you going to fucking accomplish that, because this is me telling you to fuck right off." Gerard snapped, turning back to his work and smirking to himself, content in his victory as he continued to sketch the world's most dull fucking pansy, as Frank unbeknownst to Gerard made his way to the front of the classroom.

And with the world's biggest smirk, the sixteen year old poured a tub of red paint over a girl's head, who, of course screamed in retaliation, causing Gerard to look up from his work as Frank uttered a quiet and meaningless 'oops'.

"Iero, that's detention, you're seeing me after school." The teacher exhaled, almost glaring at the girl who ran to the sink, attempting to get the paint out of her hair, but, of course, due to the excessive quantity, to no avail. "You too, Way, don't forget. Don't be late to my lessons."

And just like that, Frank hit Gerard with a smirk, and Gerard wanted to hit him back with his fucking fist.

"Like that, Gerard." Frank grinned, sitting back down and answering Gerard's query from minutes ago now.

"Yes, because you're going to fuck me whilst we're in detention, fuck off, Frank." Gerard shook his head, adamant and stubborn in his own victory, and determined to finish this fucking drawing of the world's least exciting flowers more than ever before.

"Oh but he's an art teacher, he doesn't give a single fucking shit what happens - it's a 'do your work' locked room kind of detention. I know how these work, Gerard, we'll be fine, and anyway, without you modelling for me, there's not a chance I could ever complete my work." Frank pouted, and Gerard considered throwing his own head into a tub of paint and framing Frank, because fuck, he could not deal with this.

Hell, he was even considering punching himself in the face just to get out of this, because this was Frank Iero, and at this point, Gerard didn't fucking doubt a single word he said.

But dread soon faded with time, and as the bell for the end of the day rung, the sinking feeling in Gerard's stomach was nothing more than butterflies, because this was still Frank Iero, and as the rest of the class filed out of the room, Gerard just came to accept that today, he was fucking screwed, and it became rather apparent that Frank would go through with this shit, whether he liked it or not.

"Gerard, don't be late to class next time, you hear me?" The teacher got up from the desk, coffee mug in hand, and on his way to the staffroom - no doubt about it. "Frank, you should be lucky I like you, otherwise, you'd be kicked out by now. Look, just finish your work, okay, and I'll be back soon." And with that, he left, and most likely to never return.

"How the fuck does he like you?" Gerard exclaimed in every effort just to distract Frank from the one thing on his mind right now.

"I sucked him off like last Wednesday. Told me I was getting a D in art, and I told him that he'll be getting the D in art, well in the art stockroom in approximately ten minutes, and he took me up upon that offer." Frank smirked: entirely too proud of him and Gerard just didn't know what to think.

"I don't know what to say."

"Yeah, well, luckily for you, this involves a lot more posing than talking." Frank rolled his eyes, grabbing his work and a pencil and gesturing towards the back of the room. "Sit up on that cupboard. You know what to do, I know someone like you does."

"Frank, I'm not doing this." Gerard exclaimed, adamant in his resistance to Frank Iero's 'charm' for like the first time ever, which was character development to say the least.

"Sure, okay. If you're not going to do it for me, then I'm going to have to do the work here." And just like that, Frank pushed Gerard up onto the desk and pulled his pants down to his knees, and any reluctance faded away as the sixteen year old sank to his knees and got his lips around Gerard.

Gerard was a fucking idiot, and this was the final proof.

Frank pulled away, grinning up at Gerard like the world's fucking biggest idiot, which, of course, he was. "Nice to see that you're cooperating now. That's better, huh, isn't it, Gerard?"

"F-Frank, for fuck's sake- look, we both know that this just isn't about your artwork, okay?" Gerard finally regained control of whatever sanity Frank Iero hadn't quite managed to drain from him, yet, and pushed the sixteen year old away from him, forcing himself not to react as Frank found himself quite happily perched on his knees: eyes wide and almost innocently looking up at Gerard, and it was killing him.

Frank Iero was killing him.

"Let it be about that. It's easier that way." Frank sighed out, dragging a hand back through his hair and tucking it behind his ears, of course, due to its length, only for it to inevitability slip back out of place again. "You don't want to date me, and that's okay, so this is just art, Gerard, this is you. I thought you'd understand art, surely."

"When it comes to you, I don't understand anything." Gerard sighed out, biting down on his bottom lip and pulling his jeans up and sliding off the table onto his feet: Frank still on his knees and with no complaint. "Get up, Frank, come on, this is ridiculous."

"I just want to make you come, Gerard, come on, just give in, don't be fucking stupid - you want that, I'd want it. Maybe this is just me sucking your dick as a casual thing and maybe just to draw later, and maybe you can even pretend that this ever happened-"

"But no, I can't, Frank, because that's not what I want to do. Did what I said to you mean nothing at all? I love you Frank, and I can't help it, and that's why I tried to suppress it, because you're you and you're supposed to be straight and you're not supposed to love me, but that's fucking me up, because you don't know how to feel and neither do I."

"Then just date me, come on, let us do these kind of things in empty classrooms and like kiss and shit - hey, okay, I know this might not work, but it might, and you're never going to know unless you just try. Gerard, come on, let's make this work!" Frank exclaimed, getting up and grabbing Gerard by the hand.

"Your girlfriend-" Gerard couldn't help but add, and still he couldn't help but feel as if Gee was an important part of him that he didn't want to lose, especially not for Frank Iero.

"Irrelevant in comparison to you." Frank promised, smiling up at Gerard like the world's biggest asshole.

"Say that to her face before you say it to me, okay." Gerard exhaled, ignoring the rather obvious, but still utterly secret fact that Frank was in fact doing nothing but that right now.

"Gerard, please, look, okay, even if we can't date. Even if you hate yourself enough just to not let that happen, just let me have this art work - I'll pass this class with your help and you know it." Frank pleaded, leaning closer to Gerard, who had to admit that he was find it hard to protest when it came to cute boys pressing their body close up to Gerard's.

"You know, by help, you should mean that I give you constructive criticism or just draw the damn thing for you, not... you know..." Gerard trailed off, blushing.

"Jack off." Frank finished for him, stepping away from Gerard. "We could do this in a more private setting if you prefer - we could go to mine, I mean, if it's the whole school thing, although I assure you, no one's going to come in here for the next half hour at the very least, well, apparent from you. You're going to come."

"Frank, I'm not-" Gerard sighed out, only for Frank to grab himself and pin him up against the classroom wall: heavy panting and bedroom eyes all of a sudden. And fuck, Gerard was not at all prepared for this. "Frank..." His eyes grew wider as they met with Frank's and the 'fuck me' gaze within them. "Frank, just listen to me-"

And then before Gerard could even contemplate his excuse, Frank's lips were pressed up against the seventeen year old and everything seemed to fade away in stupid little moans and noises that came from the back of Gerard's throat that sounded far much more like squeaks than the seventeen year old would ever care to admit.

Gerard gave up.

Gerard gave in.

And it was pathetic, but when Frank Iero was kissing his neck, he hardly put himself in the position to make good decisions, because goddamn, Frank fucking Iero was pretty much just making out with him in an art room.

And before Gerard knew what he was doing, he was pulling Frank closer to him, and the sixteen year old was definitely fucking smirking against his skin: pale skin that was going to bruise purple tomorrow, and even with the knowledge that there'd be evidence and evidence other people would see and ask him about: other people being Mikey and his mum, but still Gerard didn't care.

But then, almost like clockwork, Frank fell to his knees once more, and looked up at Gerard with that same fucking look, and Gerard just knew he was done for.

"I'm not going to even try to get you to stop anymore, okay." Gerard sighed out, unbuttoning his own jeans, and leaving Frank to the rest.

"Good, because I wasn't planning on it." Frank smirked, pulling Gerard's boxers down to his knees. "I have a piece of fucking art to finish, of course."

"Something tells me that maybe it's not just about that, you know?" Gerard added, but Frank only shrugged it off, lying through as his teeth and leaving the question unanswered as he took Gerard into his mouth and nothing quite seemed to matter as much as the moment did right then and right there.

And world class virgin Gerard Way, had really been underestimating blowjobs, because holy fucking shit, and the fact that this was Frank Iero really was not helping Gerard's case, or just his sanity in general, because the sixteen year old did unholy things to him, and with his lips around him, getting dirt on his knees, Gerard came to accept that this would be a moment that he'd never forget.

"God, you're really fucking g-good at this y-you- fuck- know?" Gerard gasped out, not having accounted for the little moans that slipped their way into his words.

Frank paused for a moment, pulling away just to look up and flash Gerard a killer smirk. "Oh, I know. I'm good at everything." He grabbed Gerard by his hips, pushing him back against the wall, and receiving a little gasp in aid of his efforts. "And you're such a fucking virgin that I could probably have you coming like seven times, but unfortunately, we only have like twenty minutes, so I'd say once was enough."

"Stop calling me a virgin." Gerard exclaimed, his cheeks glowing a horrific shade of tomato red; he was embarrassed to say the least.

"What? You want me to change that?" Frank smirked, and in response, or well, a lack of it, Gerard just pushed himself forward onto Frank, who made an little breathy sound in appreciation, taking Gerard down his throat within seconds, because maybe, just maybe, Frank Iero was too good at giving blowjobs for being a 'straight' guy well, up until like last week or so.

But needless to say, it was indeed incredibly suspicious, but really, the last thought in Gerard's mind as Frank tightened his lips around him, and Gerard knew he was fucking close and that nothing would ever be quite as good as this, even if it was cramped and awkward in the corner of an art classroom, with the, although unlikely, threat of being interrupted at any moment.

Frank loved that though; he loved the thrill and the sin of it, and Gerard found himself thrown head first, or well, dick first, into a side of life that he could never even fathom understanding, and really, all he knew was that it was most definitely Frank Iero's fault.

And then, Gerard was coming, left spent and fucking broken against the wall as Frank pulled away, leaving a rather questionable mess upon the classroom floor.

"You might want to clean that up." Frank added, smirk fully in tact, and really far too proud of himself, because, maybe, just maybe, sucking Gerard Way off was one of his main goals in life - the guy was pretty fucking cute, okay.

Frank was all excuses, and not enough truth at all, and still expected Gerard to have the slightest clue how to feel amidst this whole fucking mess.

"Me?" Gerard exclaimed after a few seconds of silence in which he struggled to get both his breath and his sanity back. "This is your fucking fault, Frank!" Gerard sighed out, grabbing some rather conveniently placed paper towel and drying himself off, making sure to pull his jeans back up before the art teacher happened to return.

"Yes, but I have art to complete and lots of fucking inspiration for it now, thank you very much by the way." Frank grinned at Gerard: a fucking shit eating grin, and one that Gerard really should have punched him in the face for, but really, there was no way around the fact that it was a phenomenal blowjob and in consequence, Frank had earned himself a ten minutes in which Gerard Way wouldn't even consider punching him in the face.

"You're welcome." Gerard sighed out, half-heartedly moving the chest of drawers to cover the rather obvious come stain on the floor - his, and still, it was none other than Frank Iero to blame.

"It's going to fucking smell, you know?" Frank pointed out, making it clear that he was focusing on just about everything besides his artwork, and Gerard came to wonder why he'd even bothered 'helping' the guy out. Oh yeah, of course, he was in love with him... yeah, that.

"Not my problem." Gerard shrugged it off, sitting back down Frank in order to create the illusion that he'd been making art and not come stains on the classroom floor.

"It'll be mine. Teachers are just coming to assume that when this shit happens, it's somehow my fault." Frank fake pouted in Gerard's direction, who eventually just gave up trying to do any work at all, and met Frank's gaze, knowing like hell that there wasn't anything he was ever going to regret quite like today and this fucking art lesson and the detention that followed.

"Well, it is." Gerard grinned a little. "They'd be right."

"I don't want to get kicked out of art class again." Frank sighed out, leaning against Gerard in a really fucking annoying way, but the seventeen year old came to accept that it was highly unlikely that he'd ever come to have the slightest say in what Frank Iero did or didn't do.

Gerard snorted at that. "It's you. Where's the 'I don't give a shit' attitude gone?" Gerard asked, moving to allow Frank to lean back against his chest just a little more comfortably. "Surely you don't care if you get moved about?"

"You're in this art class." Frank sighed out, and Gerard couldn't help but catch his own breath at that moment. "I'd miss you, Gerard. You're quite the distraction, of course, but you make painting shitty ass flowers worthwhile."

"Frank, I haven't seen you draw anything that isn't blatantly pornographic at all, ever." Gerard sighed out, wondering just how on earth he'd gotten into this mess - yeah, this is why you should never be late to class, kids.

"And I haven't seen you draw anything that it's dull and fucking boring at all, ever. Hey maybe we should swap." Frank exclaimed with entirely too much vigour.

"That's never going to happen."

"We'll see, Gerard Way, we'll see."

-


	15. Gerard Way The Homosexual Guidance Counsellor

Making eye contact with the person in the mirror had always been important to Gerard: self-esteem issues and the like having scattered themselves along the years, but these days it was an entirely different ordeal, and one far more corrupt and scandalous indeed.

He liked the transformation into someone he wasn't, he liked the ecstasy his alter-ego gave him, and liked making Frank Iero want him... well not him, Gee. Gerard still didn't get that: it was almost as if he was utterly unable to even consider flirting with Frank without wearing a miniskirt.

Sure, the other day after school in that art class was something Gerard was never going to forget, but it wasn't him, it was all Frank, and it felt like he was being played, and that somehow, in Frank's eyes, this was nothing more than one enormous elaborate scam.

Even when Gerard was the scammer.

He met the eyes of his reflection in the mirror, unable to even recognise himself in them, and maybe that was good, or maybe it was just as fucked up as sanity would say, but it didn't matter at all because Gerard Way decided he kind of liked it.

He always liked pretending: getting away from himself for a while and getting far too deep into someone else's shoes. Maybe that was why he liked acting so much, after all, it certainly wasn't Gabe Saporta that was keeping him at the theatre every week.

Gerard had been doing a pretty good job when it came to avoiding Gabe Saporta recently, especially after that little incident with the kissing, and the stomach churning feeling it gave the seventeen year old every time he even thought of it, which, admittedly, wasn't often, but still in his mind, was far more than necessary.

But that didn't matter at all anymore: Gee didn't even know Gabe Saporta, and that was wonderful, because Gee could just care about 'her' boyfriend and kissing him, and making awkward excuses as to why she couldn't have fuck him which didn't involve 'I actually have a penis'.

Gerard looked fucking good in miniskirts though, so as not make use of such a gift would of course be nothing more than an insult, so maybe, even if everything about this was entirely morally wrong and fucked up beyond belief, at the very least he could explain it all with that stupid black miniskirt at the back of his closet, which inevitably his mum would find some day.

And oh god, that would certainly be interesting, and Gerard knew like hell that there wasn't a chance that Mikey wasn't just going to blurt it all out accidentally.

But whatever, Mikey and Mrs Way were Gerard's problem, and for now, just for a few hours, he was Gee, and he looked fucking hot in this miniskirt, and absolutely everything was okay.

Either that, or Gee was a far better liar than Gerard ever was, but then again, he had managed to keep this whole crossdressing alter ego secret for far too long now, so you had to give him credit for that at the very least.

-

There was just something about knowing people were staring at you.

There was just something so goddamn arrogant inside Gerard that just wanted to ensure that no one ever dared take their eyes off him, and Gee had brought that out, especially today, with his miniskirt shorter than usual, and legs clad in knee high socks.

Honestly, he could only get sluttier if he just went and took his clothes off, right there, in the street - that or got breast implants, which although unlikely, with Gerard's current dedication to his alter ego, wouldn't perhaps be quite so unlikely if he managed to keep this up for much longer.

But, the thing was, that every single wolf whistle and every single fucking sexist remark meant absolutely nothing: he didn't care, and he never would care as much as that time that Frank Iero had catcalled him whilst wearing that dress from theatre.

God, he was a mess, and Gee was just a well-disguised reflection of that. But at the very least, he didn't have long enough to really consider the mess he'd become as he approached the skate park, and caught the stares of just a few people there, already.

Fuck.

Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe this had always been a bad idea, and hell, Frank Iero might not even be here, and goddamn, maybe this was exactly how he fell apart, and maybe, just maybe, at this point he deserved that like he deserved his destiny.

"Who you looking for, sweetheart?" Gee almost jumped a little as one guy: oversized shirt with a faded logo, and jeans too tight, addressed him amongst the many stares and whispers, as pretty much the whole skate park turned their heads to look at fucking Gee, in his fucking miniskirt, and well, think of just that - fucking Gee.

He swallowed his nerves and met the guy's gaze, this was simple, this was fucking easy. "Iero. Frank Iero."

And with that, nothing but silence.

"Someone's lucky, huh? Tell your boyfriend he still owes me weed, won't you, darling?" Gee swallowed a little at that, utterly lost at quite what to do and where to go from here with what felt like the whole damn world watching.

"Leave it, asshole." The two jumped a little as a second guy: long dark hair and a particularly skeptical gaze upon his face. "I said fucking leave it, leave her alone - not your girlfriend, got it?"

"Not yours either, is she, though, McCracken?" The guy added, but Bert's expression served as a final reminder that he gone more than too far at this point. "Okay, whatever, tell Iero he owes me twice that weed."

"What for? Because someone fucking called you out on being such an asshole?" And then before, Gerard knew what he was doing, and just how unbelievably stupid it was, he was practically yelling at the guy.

"Oh, so she does speak - wonderful." Asshole guy exclaimed, rolling his eyes: entirely unexpectant of the kick to the balls that had him groaning and falling back onto the ground - courtesy of Bert McCracken, who could just maybe, once in a while, be nice, in favour of hot 'girls'. "F-uck you-"

"Whatever." Bert shrugged it off, giving the guy one final kick to the stomach, before meeting Gee's gaze. "Come on. He's round the back like the world's biggest fucking asshole - I'm Bert, his best friend, you can trust me, alright? Has he mentioned me?"

"Yeah..." Gee trailed out, following Bert away from the mess, as the crowds soon became entirely disinterested in the two of them, and more so with the asshole lying on the ground in pain.

"Good."

"You're the asshole best friend who he kind of hates, because you keep calling him a faggot and pressuring him to fuck me, huh?" Needless to say, Bert was not expecting that.

"Technically got you laid, though - so I just did you a favour, didn't I?" Bert added, smirking like an asshole, not to Gee's amusement.

"We never did fuck, you know that, Bert. And don't try and tell me that my boyfriend's gay, okay, I think I'd know."

And really, Gerard did. He knew an awful lot about just how gay Frank Iero could be, and just how willing he was to suck dick in the art rooms, and well, just paint porn, for the most part.

"Sure, but when you walk in on him sucking dick, don't say I told you so." Bert shrugged it off, leaving the two of them to walk the rest of the journey to the quieter part at the back of the skate park, of course, despite being quieter and far more peaceful, it did absolutely reek of catshit, but whatever, nothing was ever perfect.

"Iero, tell your girlfriend not to turn up dressed like the world's biggest slut, because otherwise you're going to have to start paying me to beat up assholes for you." Bert exclaimed, in absolute ignorance of Gee's presence, as the two made their way behind a skate ramp and into a corner, which surprisingly, smelled far more of weed than it did of catshit.

And it seemed that the lack of catshit was just about Gee's luck for the day, as he came to realise that Frank was not alone behind there, and that, Frank Iero was in fact sat with none other than Mikey fucking Way, and really, having that guy flirt with him until his insides dissolved in disgust, would have probably been the preferable option.

"What?" Frank exclaimed, his eyes widening as he looked between the two of them, his gaze stopping upon Gee's rather questionable attire.

And really, Mikey was just trying his best not to get hard over his brother in a miniskirt, because okay, just maybe, now, he could see how Gerard got away with this: he made a particularly hot and awfully convincing girl, at least from a distance.

"Asshole guy - don't know his name, you know, the one that you owe a shit ton of weed." Bert provided a simple explanation, leaving Frank to groan and consider burying his head in the catshit over here, as Gee and Mikey's gaze finally met with nothing other than an 'I'm going to fucking kill you' glare - nothing more than the usual, of course.

"Fuck my life." Frank sighed out, before meeting Gee's gaze properly for the first time. "You're alright, aren't you?"

"I'm alright, yeah." Gee forced a smile, sitting down beside Frank, in a last ditch attempt to avoid Mikey's gaze.

"And who's this?" Bert asked, gesturing towards Mikey, as he sat down opposite the three of them, lighting himself a cigarette.

"That's Mikey, he's my friend." Frank sighed out, grabbing a cigarette from Bert without question. "We're friends because I offered him weed."

"All your friendships start with weed." Bert noted, laughing a little as he met Mikey's rather pissed off glare, Mikey being the only one of the four who knew exactly what was going on here, and dear god, it was killing him.

"So? Where's your point?" Frank asked, grinning a little in a manner that Gerard just couldn't help but let his insides melt a little at.

"Should be setting a better example for your girlfriend, just saying." Bert shrugged it off, inhaling far too much nicotine at once, and ending up choking like an idiot.

"I'm not some fucking princess you need to protect. Yeah, whatever, you kicked a guy in the balls for me - I appreciate the gesture, but back off." And that was the main advantage to Gee, besides the miniskirt at least, because there wasn't a single chance in hell that Gerard Way would ever quite grow the balls to say that.

"I wasn't even making a pass at you, calm down." Bert laughed it off, blushing a little, and with nothing more than disappointed glares from both Mikey and Frank.

Needless to say, Mikey had only ever come here to talk to Frank about his friendship with Pete had fallen apart at the mercy of one fucking stupid drunken kiss that Pete couldn't even remember, and was driving the fifteen year old absolutely crazy, and not in that way, not that it would have helped at all, and really now, Mikey would rather be anywhere but here.

"Bert, do the words 'not your girlfriend' mean anything to you?" Frank asked, eyebrows raised as he pulled Gee closer into his side - instinct or whatever.

"Yeah, they mean 'this one's a challenge'." Bert grinned, falling into a fit of laughter that no one else shared.

"Bert, you're not going to fuck my girlfriend, okay." Frank sighed out, shaking his head. "I kind of like her a lot, you know? So don't fuck this up for me, for once?"

Gee blushed a little at that, utterly neglecting the fact that despite how much he 'kind of liked her a lot', he was still cheating on Gee, well with Gerard, who was actually just the same person, minus the ego, the sluttiness, the miniskirt, and the majority of the make-up, but Frank didn't know that, and Frank had also promised Gerard that he'd dump his girlfriend for him, and really, Mikey was the only one who ever seemed to notice that for the most part, when it came to girls and dating, Frank was just as much of an asshole as Bert was.

"Well, you should fuck her then. You wanna see who gets there first, Iero?"

"You want to get punched in the face, Bert? Because I fucking will." 

-

"Sorry, he's an asshole."

Needless to say, Frank was perhaps just a little too glad when Bert finally fucked off, and Mikey made some awkward excuse to get away from his brother in a miniskirt, because maybe, with Gee looking like this, he was having trouble not reacting in the same way Bert had.

He had at least some respect for Gee, though, so he wasn't about to go full asshole, but maybe, just maybe, there were some things - certain feelings, that were utterly out of his control.

"Yeah, I guessed." Gerard added in response, avoiding Frank's gaze as the two walked down the street, away from the skate park, and almost as if in the direction of Frank's home, and maybe this wasn't completely mindless, it seemed.

"I'm sorry, though, like you don't deserve to be treated like that, even if you are dressed like a slut." Frank stuttered the last part out: it only hitting him too late that this was the kind of thing that girls tended to get offended by.

"So you think I'm dressed like a slut?" Gee struggled to bite back a smirk, catching Frank's gaze, and fucking winking, as whatever was left of Gerard inside was looking for the quickest and easiest way to off himself right there.

"Just a little." Frank admitted, blushing as he found his gaze directed to the floor.

"Only a little, huh?" Gee exclaimed, giving Frank a gentle little shove. "I'll make sure to up my game next time then. Do you have any tips, requests, suggestions?" 

Maybe, just maybe, Gee liked flirting with Frank all too much, and maybe, Gerard would let it all slip for one hour of happiness that he had to lie his way through, because at this point, it was so goddamn clear that Gee was everything to Frank, and that Gerard was nothing more than a fuck, or someone to tease and embarrass and keep himself occupied with at school.

"Are you sure that the fact you don't want to fuck me isn't personal?" Frank found himself asking, again, of course, only putting his head to the slightest use when it was nothing more than far too late to actually do anything about it.

"I'm sure." Gee sighed out, turning away, and leaving the two in an awkward silence for the next few minutes, and one that Frank was nothing but to blame for.

"Okay." Frank added: just a word to fill the silence, but never enough to silence the screaming thoughts in Gee's head.

"What are we, Frank?" Gee finally sighed out, Gerard beginning to take the slightest bit of control, or maybe, that was just common sense giving him a simple reminder that it did, in fact, exist. "Like, are we dating or is this just flirting, seriously, what's going on? Is there someone else?"

"Why the hell would you think there's someone else- is this about what Bert said about me being a faggot, because I'm not a fucking faggot!" And just like that, Frank stopped still in the street, screaming at Gee by this point, and really, both Gee and Gerard could finally agree on something for once, and that something was nothing other than the fact that Frank Iero was a lying asshole.

"Sure you're not." Gerard snapped out in response, ignoring Frank and beginning to walk further down the road, but of course, only for the sixteen year old to run to catch up with him, because that was just what fuckboys did.

"Gee, seriously, what is this, because you know that Bert's an asshole and that you should just totally disregard absolutely everything he says, right?" Frank sighed out, his eyes widening as they came to meet Gee's less than welcoming expression.

"This isn't about Bert." And just like that, they finally stopped to let their gazes lock, and maybe, just then was when everything fell apart. "This is about you, Frank. You're fucking with my head and you're well aware of it. Look me right in the eye and tell me that you're not cheating on me."

"Okay." Frank bit down on his lip, meeting Gee's gaze and waiting for the words to come, but they didn't, and he remained wordless and without a single excuse, and just really, nothing more than utterly fucked, and he knew it.

"Told you." Gee added into the silence. "At least we have progress, at least you're not lying to me now."

"But we're all liars, Gee, that's who we are, as humans, we can't help it, and we just can't help wanting to make other people feel just a little better, even if we have to lie to do so - the whole truth would hurt you, Gee, and I love you too much to ever bare to see you hurt."

"You should have thought about that before you went and cheated on me, don't you think?"

And Gee, well Gerard, couldn't help the fact that Frank was right, and that he spent absolutely every minute of every single day lying to the guy, especially right now, in his miniskirt and make up, and he looked like a hot mess, but really, he was nothing more than that kid that Frank sat next to in art class.

That Frank sucked off in art class.

That was entirely what changed things.

"Bert's not wrong though." Gerard finally added as the two continued to walk in silence.

"I told you-" Frank protested, eyes widening, and utterly terrified of even the concept, never mind the actual acceptance of who he was.

"Yeah, you also told me that you're a liar." Gerard finally met Frank's gaze, leaving everything else to disappear, because despite how fucked up this was, it was still unbelievably important. "Frank, are you gay or bi, or what? Because you're certainly not straight, I know that at the very least."

"You have no evidence that I'm not straight, fuck off, Gee, seriously, what is this?" Frank was quickly losing whatever ounce of cool he had in the first place, and it was more than blatantly evident by now.

"Gerard Way. What the fuck are you doing with Gerard Way if you're straight?" And Gerard knew that this was the most idiotic decision of them all, and the one that would surely fuck him over completely, yet he found himself in the situation where he'd do pretty much anything for just a few goddamn answers.

"Hey- how the fuck do you know- what the- that's a secret, and you don't even know him. How could you? You're you and he's, well him." And perhaps that was just it - breaking point, and at this point, Gerard Way knew nothing like he knew the fact that Frank Iero was nothing more than the world's biggest fuckboy.

"I know him better than you'd think." Gerard stopped again, meeting Frank's gaze: the younger far more intimidated and threatened with the fact that someone knew about his slightly less than heterosexual feelings regarding Gerard Way. "And he cares about you, so don't fuck him about like this, okay?"

"Maybe I am gay or bi, or whatever- okay." Frank sighed out, grabbing Gee by the arm and making eye contact - awkward, but eye contact nonetheless. "Does that matter to you?"

"No- what matters to me is the fact that you promised him you'd dump me for him, and now you're talking to me like he's worth nothing." And there was the final bombshell, blowing the sixteen year old apart. "We all may be liars, Frank, but you're just fucked up."

-

In comparison to Gerard and Frank, Pete and Mikey weren't doing all that much better, and really, the only difference was in the fact that there never even was a 'Pete and Mikey', whereas 'Gerard and Frank' had simply to fallen to shit as a result of the multitude of lies.

Pete and Mikey never even had anything to lie to each other about in the first place.

They had nothing, besides that kiss that ruined the whole world, but with time, even that meant nothing, and maybe, just maybe it was better off like this, but try as Mikey might, he could never quite settle the sinking feeling in his stomach, and Pete could never stop himself from catching his eyes for entirely too long: entirely too long for it to be heterosexual, of course.

In short, Mikey Way was the world's worst heterosexual, but at the very least, unlike Pete, he was actually trying.

But of the two of them, it was just awkward stares and an utter refusal to ever talk about what had happened, and maybe, this would only serve as a reminder as to why Pete Wentz should never be allowed excessive amounts of alcohol, but it felt like so much more, and it seemed that this simply wasn't a feeling that was going to go away with time.

And really, Frank's lacklustre, vaguely homosexual advice was not benefitting Mikey in the slightest, and to the extent that he actually found himself considering going to his brother for homosexual advice: dear god, he'd never hear the end of this, but he knew that this simply wasn't just a situation that he could ignore and leave to go away by itself.

If Mikey and Pete were anything, they were far more than that.

And Mikey still couldn't figure out as to whether that was a good thing or not.

"Gerard?" Mikey thought it better to knock: when your brother was accustomed to wearing miniskirts and fishnets, it was always better to knock. "Can I come in without being forever emotionally scarred?"

"I'm dressed like a dude, if that's what you mean." Gerard sighed out, biting down on his bottom lip in a last ditch attempt as to not scream down Mikey's throat about how just how fucking narrow minded he was, because maybe this was just who Gerard was, and maybe, although he struggled to admit it, it was more than just an act, and it was so much more than for just Frank Iero's benefit.

Because now Frank didn't matter at all, Gerard still wanted to dress up pretty, and even without Frank Iero, he still wanted to be Gee.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Mikey asked, closing the door behind him and taking a seat on the bed, facing where Gerard was sat in his desk chair: having closed something on his computer suspiciously fast, but whatever, maybe Mikey was just better off not knowing.

"Depends if you're going to be an asshole about it or not." Gerard sighed out, turning to meet Mikey's gaze. "But whatever, go ahead."

And then silence as Mikey felt like swallowing his own tongue, because goddamn, the truth could scream inside his head for hours, but it couldn't make itself out into reality, even for just one second.

"Pete kissed me."

Gerard tried his best not to react in anyway whatsoever, but really, he knew that there was no way around the fact that this one would be interesting, at the very least. "And? Am I suddenly your homosexual guidance counsellor?"

"No, you're my brother who has far more experience with kissing boys than I do." Mikey sighed out, throwing his gaze to the ground as he came to the conclusion that this would have probably been easier to talk about with his mum.

"So you want to kiss boys?" Gerard asked, eyebrows raised slightly, as he struggled to force any further comments down his throat.

"No- I don't know, Gerard. I just know that I don't want to lose Pete as a friend and we need to talk about this, but I don't know how because it's just awkward staring and I just- I don't know what I feel, it's like my head's been fucking fried."

"Would you kiss him again?" Gerard asked, biting back the smirk as he came to realise that one day Mrs Way was going to find out that now both of her sons were 'cursed' with homosexual tendencies.

"Fuck- I don't know, like maybe, but it wouldn't work- I wouldn't, but if I could, like maybe, I would." Mikey's head was fucked, to say the least.

"Well, kiss him again and see how it goes - if neither of you are actually prepared to speak about this like normal fucking people, that's your best bet - he's going to react, and see how it goes from there."

"What if he's angry at me and hates me for it?"

"Oh come on, Mikey, he kissed you first." Gerard sighed out, eyebrows raised.

"One more question: how come you have the best advice yet you don't have a fucking clue what you're doing with Frank?"

"Because Frank Iero's a fucking asshole. I'm doing nothing with Frank now."

"Finally." Mikey smirked, glancing towards the wardrobe. "I'll help you burn the miniskirts if you want, huh?"

And dear god, Gerard felt like dying, because no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't say no. 

-


	16. In Which Mikey Is Not An Asshole (For Once)

"Something's wrong, isn't it?" Mikey had noticed the very moment he'd seen Gerard today, and the awkward ten minute silence they shared eating breakfast only served to consolidate such a fact. If Mikey knew anything, it was that his brother definitely wasn't acting himself today, because even though they may absolute loathe one another at times, Gerard would still always be Mikey's brother.

"Mmm?" Gerard jerked up a little, blushing under Mikey's glare - that kind of 'don't even try and lie your way out of it, I know something's up and you are going to tell me' look that Gerard had grown to fear.

"Look, don't even try and bullshit me, Gerard - something's wrong and it's something serious, because look, you haven't even made one stupid sarcastic joke about how my hair's sticking up a little in the back and you haven't mentioned anything- you haven't said anything, Gerard."

"I hadn't noticed your hair." Mikey was utterly unconvinced. "Honestly." Gerard's words made no change to Mikey's skepticism and by the glare he sent his brother, he made sure that he was well aware of that.

"Whatever, just tell me what's wrong - you're upset and you're my brother, it's just unnerving, I guess... I don't like it." Mikey shrugged it off, trying with all he had not to get too affectionate, because well, he had an angsty facade to up keep: it was just rather apparent that Gerard was making it more than just a little difficult to do so today.

"Nothing's wrong." Gerard promised him, and yeah, it was the worst excuse for a promise Mikey had ever heard, but it wasn't like it really mattered, because it wasn't like Mikey was giving up any time soon.

"Yeah, Gerard, and I'm the president of Iraq." Mikey rolled his eyes, getting up and making himself a third cup of coffee: Mrs Way had to leave early for a business meeting, and Mikey was making sure to fully exploit her absence in the form of having just as many cups of coffee as his bladder could cope with, which wasn't something that his mother was usually very fond of.

"Maybe you are the president of Iraq." Gerard suggested, shrugging a little, and Mikey was just astounded as to how this shitty liar was the guy who'd managed to convince Frank Iero that he was female (and worth speaking to) for months on end.

"Gerard..." Mikey exhaled loudly, turning back to face his brother. "Tell me truthfully, and I'll make you coffee, how about that?" And with the awkward smile on his brother's face, Mikey knew he had won.

"Fuck, why do you know me so well- coffee should be off limits, you know? Coffee's like the one way to convince me of anything - it gives you far too much of an advantage, and it's not far." Gerard groaned, pushing his hair behind his ear and meeting his brother's gaze.

"Well maybe your coffee addiction is something you should consider dealing with then - it's not my problem, Gerard." Mikey shrugged it off, grabbing a second coffee mug from the cupboard and boiling the kettle. "Now, I do believe you owe me an explanation."

"Mikey, please, look... this is more than a manipulate me into telling you with a cup of coffee kind of thing- fuck, this is a serious thing... this is... this is something that's bothering me and this is something I've been thinking about pretty much non-stop for the past few days. In fact, I'm kind of scared to tell you: to let it out of my head and well, let it be real." Gerard sighed out, struggling to verbalise just how he felt and how important one fucking stupid thing had managed to become: it was ridiculous and Gerard knew it like he knew he hated Frank Iero.

On the topic of Frank Iero: the two hadn't spoken in days, and Frank hadn't shown up at school either, leaving Gerard to conclude that maybe, just maybe, this had affected him just a little more than he was at all willing to let on, but whatever, Gerard didn't care- he wasn't supposed to care - he was supposed to hate Frank, and maybe, Frank deserved this.

"Well, drink some coffee and then you'll feel okay enough to tell me, look, I'm your brother - you managed to come out to me, if you can do that, then how hard can this be?" Mikey's face gave way to a smile at that point, as he carried the two cups of coffee back over to the dining table: placing one in front of Gerard and holding the other in his hands.

"It's harder, Mikey, I promise you, this is so damn hard and this is just crazy and messed up, because I'm not sure with this, you know? With my sexuality, well, the fact that I was gay was kind of hard to actually tell people about, but it was just something I always knew deep down, but this... this kind of just crept up on me and god, I don't have a fucking clue as to how to deal with it-"

"Gerard, it can't be that bad, it's not as if you've decided that you want to become a woman, is it?" Mikey laughed it off, but Gerard sat there, deadly silent.

"Kind of." He admitted: quiet as a mouse and with a million regrets, but the two words fell from his lips with eventuality.

"What?" Mikey nearly spilled his coffee at that, disregard the cup to sit down beside his brother. "This is to do with Frank, isn't it? Come on, Gerard, this has to stop."

"No, Mikey, you've got it all wrong- this isn't anything to do with Frank, this is about me and how it made me feel when you told me to burn all my skirts, and this is about how I'm coming to realise that maybe I liked dressing feminine just a bit more than I would have accounted for- like... I'm still... I'm still... I don't know, I don't know what I am exactly... it's fucked up and it's complicated, Mikey: this is why I've been thinking- it's just that, I don't feel like a guy but I don't feel like a girl either... it doesn't make sense."

"Okay." Mikey responded after a second of silence and thinking, before then flashing Gerard a smile. "You know what? Skip school today - we're going to figure this out, I'll help you."

"Mikey are you sure?" Gerard exclaimed, wondering just how much trouble Mikey would be in when his mum eventually found out.

"Yeah, of course I am - making sure that you're comfortable with yourself is far more important than one shitty ass day at school." Mikey got up from the table, finishing his coffee. "I'll get your laptop and we can research this if you want?"

"Yeah." Gerard smiled, and fuck, he smiled like he meant it. "You know what, Mikey? You're the best brother I could ever ask for."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Then if it is, I'd really appreciate it if you could go without mentioning anything about the weed I hid down the back of the sofa yesterday, even though it smells."

-

"Frank your whole life is one big train wreck and you seem utterly hesitant to ever do anything about it: explain." Jamia Nestor found herself in Frank Iero's bedroom for the fourth time in three days and really it was getting ridiculous considering the fact that neither of the two had any intentions of ever sleeping with one another, ever.

"There's this girl." Frank groaned, shaking his head up at the most intimidating girl he'd ever met, and of course, with such a title, he had no choice but to call her one of his closest friends.

"Yes, Frank, it's you, there's always a girl - in fact, there's usually more than one, but whatever, just get to the point." Her patience with the angsty emo lump that was now refusing to leave his bedroom was more than in abundance at this point.

"But there's a boy as well-"

"Ooh, she has a boyfriend, goddamn Iero, you really are a fucking wonderful asshole, you know? And what, he kicked your ass and now you're shit scared to show your face in society, because if so, grow some fucking balls, kid. Balls - grow them. And maybe don't fuck girls with boyfriends that are stronger than you, huh?" Jamia rolled her eyes, giggling a little.

"No, Jamia." He shook his head, meeting her eyes. "She doesn't have a boyfriend- I have a boyfriend... I guess... well kind of... not technically, but we're-"

"You're telling me that you, the guy who's fucked every girl I know, besides myself, because I know you well enough to consider my own dignity when it comes to being alone with you, has decided that he's gay? You're gay, Frank, what next? Life on Mars?"

"Actually, scientists reckon that's kind of likely..." Frank trailed off, sitting up in bed now, and leaving Jamia to sit beside him. "But... I guess... I don't know, sometimes I feel like I'm gay, and sometimes I just want to fuck girls and sometimes I just want to get myself into detention so I can suck off the cutest guy I've ever seen in an art room - I actually did that, by the way, and it was really fucking nice, and god, I fucking- this guy, this guy is a liferuiner and this girl she found out about this guy and she wasn't happy."

"So, okay, Frank, you're bi then? I guess this does kind of make sense the more I think about it. So, with this guy... is it just a fuck thing of thing or have you actually found someone you have actual romantic feelings for?"

"I think I love him." Frank admitted, falling back against the bed and leaving Jamia to stare wide eyed across the room as she struggled to process the fact that Frank Iero had actually become capable of love. "But I was dating her, and she broke up with me and dear god I feel like shit because she was perfect and funny and hot, and-"

"Text this guy and ask him to meet you later - sort something out, because if you love him then just spend time with him is going to make you feel better about this, now come on, look, if you fell in love with this guy whilst you were dating her, then you never really loved her, did you?"

"She wore lots of really short miniskirts and I think I spent far too much time obsessing over that to really assess how I feel, but I guess, girls are just distracting with their boobs and curves and you get caught up in how they make you physically feel, whereas, with guys, with him, I don't see boobs and something to fuck, I just see him and I go fuzzy inside because he makes me feel so good just by being around me."

"Fucking hell, who is this guy and is he some kind of magician, because to get Frank Iero to fall in love, he has to be." She exclaimed, laughing a little and Frank forced a smile in response. "Wait, who actually is this guy? I want to assess your life choices here, Iero."

"His name's Gerard Way-"

"Holy fuck, Frank, are you shitting me? That emo guy who's like a god at art? He's fucking gay as hell though, you've got that at the very least- but fuck, him? Really?"

"He's cute." Frank blushed a little, sitting up and pulling his knees up to his chest. "I guess now that I dumped her I could make this work with him, but I feel like I'm going to fuck it all up - I'm no good at relationships, I'm just good at fucking, you know that. But then again, this is gaysex, not that I haven't had that before but-"

"Do I even want to know?" Jamia exhaled, rolling her eyes at him. "No, I don't, I'm deciding that for you, but come on, introduce me to him and I'll be your own personal cupid."

"That sounds like a really fucking terrible idea, you know." Frank sighed out, getting out of bed for the first time in far too long and grabbing his phone from the bedside table. "I'll text him, though - help me decide what to wear."

"Oh, so you're going full on homo now are you?" She raised her eyebrows, smirking a little.

"Fuck off."

"Whatever, I'm just waiting until you two are together and maybe then I'll have the slightest hope that you'll stop being such a miserable piece of shit all the time."

"I'm not a miserable piece of shit-"

"Mmm... sure." 

-

"Mikey?" Gerard sighed out, watching as Mikey texted their mum back with some bullshit excuse as to why the school had rang her up and said they weren’t in today: of course, they were obviously both just really late, of course.

"Yeah? You're alright now, aren't you? I don't want this to freak you out and I want you to be happy, okay? Even if this isn't any clearer, but that's okay... these things take figuring out, don't they?" Mikey spoke all too quickly, discarding his phone on the ground as he made a move towards the laptop, and not even glancing at his brother for one short moment throughout the whole procedure.

"I think I kind of have figured it out... some of it, at least... I mean... I... I think I'd prefer they/them pronouns... I'm non-binary, I know that at the least, but in further detail, that's where it gets complicated, but this is okay for now, I guess." Gerard blushed a little as they spoke, looking away from their brother as they spoke: nerves were of course nothing but expected, but by this point, they should have known that Mikey wasn't in any position to judge whatsoever.

"Okay." Mikey stopped for a moment: words once all too fast and all at once, slowing down and fading away into nothing more than a simple nod and a slightly postponed smile. "Yeah, if it makes you feel better, then yeah."

"I don't want to throw away the girl clothes." Gerard added as they got up from the floor, grabbing their phone from the table, and being more than just a little to surprised to find that there was evidence in the form of a text message that there was at least one person in the world that actually wanted to talk to them.

"That's okay as well, I guess. So you're just going to wear boy clothes and girl clothes interchangeably?" Mikey asked, watching as Gerard's eyes widened at their phone screen as they read that one text message that had somehow become so much more important than it should have been.

"Mikey- fuck, f-fuck... Frank just asked me on a date." Gerard practically dropped their phone to the floor - of course they didn't actually, because then they'd be no way to reply to Frank and that would be problematic to say the least.

"Gee or the real you?" Mikey asked, just a little skeptical towards the situation, to say the least, and in contrast, despite their supposed hatred of the guy, Gerard seemed absolutely overjoyed.

"Gerard, me- he... he... I guess he broke up with Gee, but... I don't know... for one... I don't want to have to try and explain this whole gender thing to someone like him and I don't want to be called he again... even with just a few minutes, this instantly feels better, this is me, this fits." Gerard groaned, pushing their hair behind their ears as they let out nothing short of the world's least enthusiastic groan.

"Well, you don't have to, but that's one sure-fire way to test if he actually cares about you or if he just wants to fuck you around, but don't do what's going to upset you, promise me that, Gerard?" Gerard nodded in response, before resorting to silence for a few minutes: thinking it over and trying their best not to just fuck up their life completely, but then again, Gerard Way wasn't exactly the best person when it came to making sane and sensible decisions, especially ones that involved Frank Iero.

"I'm going to do it. I'm going to tell him. I'll invite him over, is that okay?" They asked, blushing a little, as they began to text out a response to the sixteen year old.

"Yeah, I'm going to get out of here before he arrives and you two start fucking, though." Mikey rolled his eyes, smirking a little as Gerard only continued to blush. "Call me if he starts being an asshole though and I'll punch him for you."

"I can punch him myself." Gerard protested, but Mikey could only scoff in response as he grabbed his phone and his jacket.

"I'm going to go see if Pete Wentz has gotten over his big gay crush yet." Mikey announced, grinning like an idiot as he made his way towards the door.

"He's going to be at school." Gerard reminded their brother, eyes narrowed and trying their best not to make it overly apparent as to how they were holding their breath as they pressed the send button, because god, there was no way around the fact that Frank Iero mattered all too much when in reality, he was nothing more than irrelevant. "You know, you could just go to school as well, you know."

"Yeah, you and Frank should be at school today as well, but I'm letting you have the day off to fuck and make up or something, because seeing you sad is really fucking unsettling, asshole, go on, prove to me that you're not sad." Mikey smirked at the seventeen year old, leaving Gerard to roll their eyes: apprehensive as fuck at first, but soon giving in, because maybe there was just something indescribable, yet wonderful about insulting Mikey Way.

"Your hair sticks up in the back and it looks fucking stupid." And just like that, Mikey was grinning like an idiot.

"That's what I'm talking about." And Gerard really wished they had the motivation to get up and slap their brother, because at this point, Mikey was just asking for it.

"Fuck off." 

"Yeah, I am, I hear you - listening to you and Frank fuck is not really something I want to do." And before Gerard could possibly even consider arguing against Mikey's statement, Mikey was out the backdoor and long gone in search of Pete Wentz and his big gay crush on Mikey Way.

And Gerard could help but take a moment to consider just how hard it would have been for Pete to admit that he ever had the slightest notion of feelings towards the guy who referred to such feelings shared in confidence (well, a drunken kiss, but if Pete hadn't been drunk it would have most definitely been the former) as nothing more than 'a big gay crush'.

Mikey didn't make sense, and Gerard just couldn't quite manage to understand how he'd gone from being the most supportive little brother ever to the kind of person that uses the phrase 'gay friend' and considers someone's sexuality the most important thing about them, but maybe, just maybe, Mikey was a little confused too. But then again, he was a teenager - what teenager wasn't?

-

To say that Gerard was nervous would be nothing more than an understatement, because Mikey was right and this really was it: it was either acceptance on Frank's part or acceptance on Gerard's part - that being the acceptance that Frank Iero was nothing more than the world's biggest asshole and just generally someone that Gerard should ensure that they had absolutely nothing to do with.

They hadn't been quite sure as to how they should have dressed, after all, Gerard wasn't stupid - or at least they claimed so, and no matter if they really did want to, they weren't about to dress up in a miniskirt and a shit ton of make up and make nothing more obvious than the fact that they were Gee all along.

Gerard had opted for a feminine baggy tank top kind of thing that Lindsey had actually left at Gerard's house a few weeks ago, and a pair of really tight jeans: it was feminine and they felt comfortable in it, but it didn't absolutely scream 'Gerard Way is your ex-girlfriend who wore the miniskirts', which was definitely working in their favour.

But before they could really over-assess their clothing choice and truly regret their decision to agree to this fucked up kind of date thing that would end up meaning so much more than it ever deserved to, the doorbell was ringing, and Gerard's heart was pounding right out of their chest.

And really, this wasn't even the hardest part.

"Hey." Frank was the first to speak, blushing like hell, and raising his eyebrows just a little as he took in Gerard's appearance. "Are those girls' clothes?"

"Yeah." Gerard stuttered out a response blushing like hell. "I want to wear them, and, yeah, there's something important I really have to tell you, Frank."

"Is this a marriage proposal?" Frank asked, winking just a little. "Because if so, then by what you're wearing, you can definitely wear the dress."

"Mikey promised me he'd beat you up if you were an asshole to me about this." Gerard added, gesturing for Frank to come in, with nothing more than a warning glance. "Just shut the fuck up, it's not funny."

"Okay...? I was joking, Gerard. You know that? I'm an asshole. I thought you were well aware of that when you agreed to this date-" Gerard gave up at this point, grabbing Frank by the arm and dragging him inside. "I can't see Mikey beating me up anyway - he's skinny as fuck."

"Yeah, and you're like three foot so shut the fuck up." Gerard giggled a little as they led Frank into the living room, sitting down on the sofa opposite the sixteen year old, who was just a little confused, and generally just struggling to guess what this 'important thing that Gerard had to tell him about was', and god, Frank hated being wrong.

"So what is this? Just tell me the important thing - not knowing's making me nervous and I hate it." Frank admitted, blushing a little as he pulled his knees up to his chest. "Sorry about the clothes thing as well... I... you look cute- no, fuck, you look really good, and there's something else, but I just can't lay my finger on it."

Gerard smiled: a fucking genuine smile, and dear god, they were cursed in the fact that it had to be in consequence of Frank Iero's actions. "Frank, this is like a serious, important thing, okay?" Frank nodded, biting down on his bottom lip, and dear god, that was not helping Gerard keep focused at all.

"I-I-I... gender identity... my gender- I... I'm not male, Frank, I'm not female either... I... I'm non-binary, if you know what that means and I would like it if you accept me and use they/them pronouns." Gerard's voice practically turned into a squeak at the end, as the words came out all too fast. "I'm sorry- I... I'm just uncomfortable as a guy, I'm not a guy, please don't call me he."

Silence.

Silence for far too long: Frank was thinking, and Frank's head was spinning.

"Okay." Frank sighed out, looking up to meet Gerard's gaze, but then suddenly something clicked, and god, it had taken months, but Frank had gotten there eventually. "Fuck- I... fuck, Gerard- I... Gee... what the fuck? You're... you're... Gee... you- what the fuck, Gerard?"

"Fuck..." Gerard sighed out, their voice trailing off as they pulled their gaze away. "It was a stupid fucking idea and I hate it and I was just hoping you wouldn't find out-"

"Fuck my life- I cheated on you with yourself- fucking fuck - no wonder you hated me!" Frank exclaimed, his eyes widening as he began to back away a little. "God... I- I... I don't want to think, Gerard... I... holy fuck... you in that miniskirt, that's all I'm thinking about right now, because holy fuck- I just... why did you have to lie to me?"

"Because I thought you were straight and I was in love with you and you saw me walking home from theatre that one day and I- I knew that was the only way you'd love me and it was fucking stupid and who I am and how I dress is just far much more than to impress or get you to fall in love with me, you know that, don't you?"

"God, I just don't know what to think because this kind of... this like solves all my problems because I'm in love with both Gee and Gerard, but fuck- I... you lied to me-"

"And so did you! Every fucking day you cheated on me and probably on many more occasions here, just don't try to act like the victim here because you're nothing more than the world's biggest asshole, got it?" And then before Gerard really knew what they were doing, they were shouting at the sixteen year old, and really, this wasn't going to go down in history as the best date ever, by a long shot.

"This is a date, Gerard, this is supposed to be a date and now you're screaming at me, look, I don't even care if you get your fucking brother to bitchslap me because I'm just going to look him in the eyes and tell him that 'hey, Gerard, yeah? Don't listen to them, they're a fucking hypocritical asshole'."

"Them... they're..." Gerard trailed out, their response, slow and stuttered. "Fuck, I thought you were going to call me 'he'."

"No, Gerard, I'm not, because you're wrong, and in fact, just maybe, just maybe I'm not the world's biggest asshole. Also the whole completely fucking up your life just to get my attention thing is kind of flattering actually - it does wonders for my ego-"

"Shut the fuck up."

And Frank didn't even need to try, because Gerard did a pretty good job of preoccupying Frank's lips by themself.

-


	17. The Most Traumatic Chapter Ever

Gerard's life had pretty much entirely turned around within the past few days, and really, it was far more than just unexpected, and they really just hated to admit just how much of it was down to Frank Iero, but then again, surely, by now they could just stop hating every fibre of being that was Frank Iero, or at least, pretending to.

But the whole thing with Frank was always so much more than that, and there just wasn't anyway around a fact such as that.

Of course, things weren't perfect, things could never be perfect, because Frank knew Gerard was a liar and Gerard knew the same of Frank and in consequence there was little no hope of trust in the relationship, but when Frank Iero was more than prepared to kiss it better, Gerard Way was more than prepared to forget about it, even if it would eventually drive them insane.

But of course, the hardest part lay in explaining to Lindsey and Alicia the events of the past few days - the two knew about the whole gender thing and had been absolutely fine with it, mainly because they weren't assholes and valued Gerard's friendship more than the pronoun they used to describe them, again, because they weren't assholes, but the whole thing with Frank Iero was an entirely different pile of shit, and really, Gerard couldn't help but feel like their reaction wouldn’t nearly be quite as positive.

Gerard had texted Frank last night, but from then on there'd been no contact between the two of them, and they knew that Frank cared far too much for his reputation to ever consider hanging out with Gerard at school, especially in front of his friends.

Art class was a different story, and one that involved far more awkward detentions than Gerard would ever care to admit.

But they'd ended on a good note, and Gerard just couldn't help but feel that they were making something out of nothing here, and they really wanted this relationship to last, especially when they'd trusted Frank with pretty much every secret that mattered via both Gee and Gerard, and if Gerard knew anything, it was that Frank was always an asshole when it came to dumping people.

"Gerard, you're late, like really late, like I wanted to actually get to French on time, and avoid being stabbed by my teacher, but don't mind my will to live-" Alicia rolled her eyes as Gerard approached her and Lindsey at the front gate: the two having stood there for around ten minutes already, and growing more impatient by the second.

"I'm sorry- I... I kind of have something to tell you." Gerard admitted, blushing a little as they couldn't help but speculate every possible reaction to the news of their relationship with Frank Iero in their head - it would be interesting, to say the least.

"Mikey told us about the gender thing, you know. Said you were too scared to do it, which you shouldn't be because we love you, no matter who you identify as, okay?" Lindsey grinned at them, pulling Gerard into an unexpected and over affectionate hug, as Alicia snorted a little in response to Gerard's face of suffocation as Lindsey practically drained all the air from their lungs in the process of the hug.

"It's not that- I told Mikey to do that... and thank you, really." Gerard smiled, glancing from Lindsey to Alicia as the former finally pulled away, allowing them to actually breathe for the first time in about thirty seconds.

"It's fine. It doesn't matter in the scheme of things - you're still you, whatever, you're still Gerard, and you're still my friend, and you're still making me late for French - I think you should take this detention of my behalf to be honest-"

"Yeah, well what I have to tell you is kind of important, well it's important to me, so I guess it's important to you, and can you please not make any judgements before I've fully explained anything, because I know you'd want to." Gerard sighed out, catching both of their gazes in turn, and receiving a nod before continuing.

"Look, whatever it is, I promise you, it's fine." Lindsey reassured them, and Gerard just couldn't help but wonder if she'd really have said that with the fore knowledge of just what Gerard had to tell her.

"Okay, well. I... I really don't know how to say this, and maybe, I don't even think there's anyway I can say this without you two jumping to conclusions and shit, so maybe I'm just going to say it, and just let me explain afterwards, like please, just keep silent until I've finished." Gerard paused, catching their breath, and preparing themself for the confession that could potentially ruin their life. "I'm dating Frank Iero. Like I'm dating him, not Gee or some weird alter ego or anything. Gerard. I explained everything to him: he knows about my gender and the whole thing with Gee, and really he cared more about the fact that I'd lied to him than anything else, and... he likes me and I like him, and we kissed a lot, and it was really nice, and he's really nice... and... he's not out yet, though, so like..."

"He knows that you crossdressed and lied to him for months on end and he's fine with that and still wants to date you?" Lindsey exclaimed, her eyes widening a little as she spoke, because really she could hardly stretch to believe this.

"Yeah... we're good, it's kind of weird, I mean, I lied to him, but he lied to me too, so I guess we're even, and like no more lying now... we're just good." Gerard smiled to themself, far more convinced of their situation than Lindsey could ever be.

"Look, Lindsey just leave it, even if you don't like it - it's not your business: this is Gerard's boyfriend, and therefore this is Gerard's relationship and it's their decision that goes, not yours. Sure, you can say 'I told you so' if it fucks up but just let them be happy, okay?" Alicia pressed, grabbing Lindsey by the shoulder, and meeting her gaze as she spoke.

"Okay." Lindsey shrugged it off, pulling away from Alicia with an all too sluggish response, and there was nothing to deny the fact that she didn't particularly want to pull away from Alicia Simmons, but Gerard was far too caught up in their own boyfriend and their own life to even so much as notice the blatant homosexuality occurring right before their very eyes.

"Gerard?" All three of them jumped a little at the voice, turning to see Frank Iero stood a few metres away, and gesturing towards Gerard with a smile.

"Well, looks like someone's getting laid." Alicia snorted, glancing between Gerard and Frank, as Lindsey gave her a shove in response, leaving Gerard to blush their head off as they made their way from the two most embarrassing friends known to the human race, and to the awkward grinning boyfriend that they were just a little involve with.

"Hey." Gerard was all awkward blushing at first, and it really didn't help with the fact that they knew from the giggles in the background that Lindsey and Alicia were most definitely watching their every move.

"Hey." Frank added, blushing just as much, and really, the fact that Lindsey and Alicia were making their obvious explicit gestures at him really wasn't helping at all. "So, you told Lindsey and Alicia, I guess?"

"Yeah... I... are they really that obvious?" Gerard jumped a little, only blushing more as they met Frank's gaze.

"Well they're currently making 'interesting' hand gestures at me, so I would imagine-" Frank was cut off as Gerard turned to look at these lovely hand gestures, and really they weren't disappointed, well perhaps, disappointed is the wrong word - the gestures were definitely up to the standard that they'd expected from those two, anyway.

"Fuck my life." Gerard sighed out, firmly shaking their head in Lindsey and Alicia's direction, before pointing at the two of them and miming a throating slitting gesture, which really didn't seem to work, so they resorted to far more vocal measures. "Alicia stop complaining about me making you late if you're not going to go the fuck to French!"

She rolled her eyes at them, but made her way down the corridor, Lindsey close behind her.

"Sorry." Gerard shrugged it off, leaving Frank to giggle a little in response. 

"You're kinda cute when you get angry... kinda cute all the time, actually." Frank added in just about the most cliché manner that he could muster and Gerard just knew that Frank was fucking lucky that they loved that pretty face of his far too much to slap it.

"Yeah, you're alright." Gerard shrugged in response, leaving Frank to roll his eyes at them: a stupid 'I'm hopelessly in love with you but I'm stubborn as fuck, fuck off, what are you doing to me?' kind of eye roll that was kind of cute, and really Gerard could even get embarrassed about that, because the fact that Frank Iero was cute was just that - a fact.

"Shut up." Frank added, and half-heartedly at best, but Gerard didn't care, not in the slightest. "Anyway, look, I'm making you late for whatever you have now, but I wanted to speak to you... I... uhh... I want to ask you on a date, and this is stupid and cliché but I want to prove to you that I'm not just an asshole-"

"You proved that already, Frank." Gerard reminded him. "But, I'm in no opposition to a date with the cutest guy I know."

"It's not going to be fantastic, because I'm a broke sixteen year old kid, and you deserve everything, but I can offer you takeaway, Netflix, and an empty house from five until morning, if you know what I mean." And maybe Alicia hadn't been all that wrong with those hand gestures and a certain remark that Gerard was trying their best to erase from their memory.

"So discreet, Iero, congratulations." Gerard sighed out, grinning more than they wanted to, but Frank Iero just had an unstoppable effect on them. "But, yeah, I'd love that."

"Oh shush, you know you just want me to suck your dick again." Frank added, waggling his eyebrows at Gerard in a gesture that made Alicia and Lindsey look discreet, and really, that accounted for a lot.

Gerard, of course, turned tomato red in response. "Frank-"

"Gerard!" Frank mimicked, rolling his eyes at the seventeen year old.

"Okay shut up, maybe I'm not entirely opposed to the idea, but I'm going more for the takeaway than for the blowjob." Gerard made a pretty shoddy job of promising both Frank and themself of that fact, but whatever, at least they were trying - they warranted credit for that, at the very least, because otherwise, they were just the world's biggest lovestruck train wreck, and there was little else that redeemed them from that fact.

"Whatever, but look, I'll see you tonight then, bye asshole." And with that Frank Iero was gone and Gerard Way was ten minutes late to maths, and slightly aroused, well more than slightly, and these jeans were pretty tight.

So, they said fuck it, and made their way to the toilets instead of maths - they could be fifteen minutes late instead of ten, fuck it, whatever, it was better than showing up with the world's most obvious boner.

And they were so going to kill Frank for this, because this was so most definitely his fault, like who the fuck thinks it's okay to make teenagers think of getting their dick sucked first thing before maths: fucking evil asshole boyfriends, that's who.

And really, this blowjob had better live up to the standard Frank was promising, otherwise, Gerard really would be late to maths for nothing, and with a questionable chance of them being able to play off that stain on their jeans as yoghurt or something - unlikely, but of course Gerard didn't really have that many more options at this point.

"Gerard, any reason why you're fifteen minutes late? That's a quarter of this lesson? Do you want to make this up at lunchtime?" And as they'd expected, Gerard didn't exactly get the warmest welcome to their maths lesson when they finally did arrive.

"No, I'm sorry- I... I was just late to school. I'm very sorry." Gerard bit their lip as they made their way to sit down at the back of the class and totally not spending the whole lesson thinking about Frank Iero, because they liked to think they weren't that pathetic.

But in reality, Gerard really was.

-

Gerard was more than a little nervous for their date with Frank Iero, especially now that it had an actual name - being referred to as a date somehow made it mean more and be so much more real, whereas before Gerard was only about half sure that they weren't just drowning in their own imagination.

But reality hit them hard in the face with a ton of bricks, and Gerard just wasn't entirely sure how they were supposed to deal with this, especially when Mikey wasn't even here to help them, well, the word 'help' being used rather lightly, as it was far more likely so that Mikey would just spend the time muttering sarcastic remarks at the pathetic excuse for a seventeen year old.

This was totally a situation that either Lindsey or Alicia could help them with, but of course, there wasn't a chance in hell that they were going to escape this alive without insane teasing from either Alicia or Lindsey, who would be utterly convinced that Gerard wouldn't even need to bother wearing anything to this date, because they'd be getting naked the very moment they got there.

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad, more so inconvenient than anything, but it was impractical, and they were pretty sure that a skirt would have the same effect on Frank Iero, and just like that, Gerard thought 'fuck it', and went with a black leather miniskirt - not pulling it up as high as they used to, but it was definitely still a fucking short skirt, but at least this time, they had the sense to at least wear a pair of tights as well.

And after what felt like several days of contemplation, Gerard finally settled upon a random band shirt - the print was faded too much for them to even distinguish as to what band logo had ever originally been on the shirt, and it really didn't matter because there were late as it was, and Frank had texted once already, and Gerard was fucked and not in the way that their assholes of best friends would be imagining.

Gerard texted Frank a quick and effortless 'I'll be a few minutes late', and didn't even bother to wait for the response, before surveying their reflection in the mirror and sighing, because, fuck.

How they looked was a rather important thing to Gerard, especially now that they were allowed to look like themself, and wear miniskirts without creating a secret identity for themself to woo Frank Iero: somehow, Gerard had managed to woo Frank Iero by themself, and god that was just a mystery - something that they shouldn't even spend time worrying over, because there simply wasn't an answer.

How they looked so good in a miniskirt was much the same kind of mystery, and really, Gerard wasn't one to mess with gifts like that: they looked good and that was enough, and all they had left to do was just act sane enough as to not fuck everything up with the one person that mattered so much more than he deserved to.

Gerard was ten minutes late now, but more than certain of the fact that they looked fucking cute as hell, but it hardly mattered, because Gerard could have shown up in a fucking potato sack and Frank would have still thought that they were the prettiest motherfucker he'd ever seen.

-

"Late, aren't we-" Frank rolled off a sarcastic comment as he opened the door, knowing it'd be Gerard before he even answered it - or perhaps just hoping, perhaps this had happened before a few minutes ago with a rather flustered and slightly confused postman who was now running away from Frank Iero and his awkwardly flirtatious greetings for his life.

But Frank's comment didn't quite make it all the way out, as his gaze fell upon that stupid fucking miniskirt and his insides were twisting up inside of him. "Fuck..."

Gerard let out a giggle, pushing Frank's comment off with an awkward shrug.

"God, you look good." And those were definitely 'fuck me' eyes - no doubt about it, and Gerard hadn't a single complaint at all.

"So do you." Gerard smiled in appreciation of the fact that Frank had found the one pair of jeans he had that hadn't been torn to shreds for them. "You always look good, though."

"Says you." Frank winked, grabbing Gerard by the arm and pulling them inside. "As I said, we've got an empty house, so we don't have to just stay in my bedroom, but, I'd say for convenience- you know... actually, Gerard, it's your fucking choice - what do you want to do?"

"Kiss you." Gerard admitted, blushing like hell itself. "A lot." They added in further admittance, but Frank already knew, and really, the sixteen year old was seconds away from pinning Gerard up against the wall and kiss the hell out of them.

"But." Gerard pushed Frank away, just a little, and Frank totally failed when it came to masking his disappointment: like seriously, that was a spectacular fail, and he was just lucky that Gerard was too busy getting their point across to stop and laugh at him. "I want to do all the cliché shit with you, like I want to put a movie on and play so much more attention to you, and I want you to tell me to shut up, and I want to say 'make me', and then I want you to make out with me on the sofa while the fucking movie's still on in the background, and then we make out until it finishes."

"God, you're ridiculous." Frank rolled his eyes, making his way into the living room, and leaving Gerard to follow him with wide doe eyes, as Frank muttered something about how much he loved them under his breath.

"You're ridiculous." Gerard countered, sniggering like a fucking five year old as Frank sat down the sofa - his arms crossed like he was a pissed off six year old.

"Shut the fuck up." Frank countered, rolling his eyes as Gerard joined him, and clearly not releasing just what he'd said - Gerard, of course had.

"Make me." Gerard piped up, meeting Frank's gaze with an absolutely killer smirk.

"Oh, you fucking-" Frank shook his head like he couldn't fucking believe it, but within a few seconds, his lips were on Gerard's and nothing else quite mattered at all.

It was the kind of kiss that didn't stop at anything, and it was the kind of the kiss that made Gerard dizzy as hell, but far too lovestruck to notice, and it was the kind of kiss that made Frank forget about everything except Gerard and just what their lips were doing to him. And god, it was fucking crazy, and in all the right ways.

"Happy now, are we, asshole?" Frank had pushed Gerard down onto their back and pushed himself on top of them, and really, Gerard didn’t mind nearly as much as they pretended to. 

"Not quite." Gerard responded, grinning up at their boyfriend, and Frank couldn't help roll his eyes as he moved to lie down beside Gerard on the sofa.

"Maybe that's not my problem then." Frank muttered into Gerard's ear, and the seventeen year old groaned in response, turning to face Frank.

"This is a shit date if you're not even going to kiss me, you know." They pointed out, smirking at Frank a little - mainly because Frank was fucking cute, and that was an indisputable fact.

"Then maybe you should do the honour of fixing it and kiss me: I shouldn't have to do all the work-" And Frank didn't quite finish that sentence, and really, it isn't exactly that hard to figure out why: he had a heart attack mid sentence and died right then and there, of course.

Okay, maybe Gerard had just kissed him, but that was how he felt like on the inside, and he most definitely knew that that was something he was never going to admit to Gerard.

"Mmm... you're a good fucking kisser..." Frank moaned out against Gerard's lips as the kiss faded out into the awkward, yet sweet 'I love you' stares that neither of the two could quite muster the courage to verbalise.

"So are you." Gerard added, grinning a little and kissing Frank again, before moving their lips further down Frank to reach his neck, and oh fuck, Frank was not prepared for this.

"Fuck, f-fuck you, Gerard. I'm so going to get you back for this, f-fuck... I'm gonna give you the biggest fucking hickey you've ever seen." Frank groaned out as Gerard began to kiss and bite his neck with just enough pressure to completely destroy any sanity that Frank Iero could possibly ever claim as his own.

Gerard paused at that, and only to glance up at their boyfriend with a fucking killer smirk. "Not if I get there first." And there before Frank could even quite process as to what was happening, Gerard's lips were back on Frank's neck, and within a few minutes of moaning and kissing and held back 'I love you's and stupid hormones, and the awkward angle that Frank's sofa forced them into, and the way Frank's head was spinning with chemicals, and the way Gerard's head was buzzy like caffeine without coffee: they were in love, and it was undeniable.

Also, Frank's neck was fucking ruined with a multitude of dark bruises that he was going to have to lie like hell to cover, and dear god, if he knew anything, it was that Gerard wasn't going to get away with this at all.

"God, I hate you." Frank uttered, climbing on top of Gerard and pinning them down against the sofa with their hands above their head as he kissed their neck, and perhaps kissed was a little bit of a understatement, because Frank made Gerard look like a fucking amateur.

"What the hell is my mum going to say?" Gerard exclaimed, shaking their head up at their boyfriend: they reckoned that they were imagining it to be, but they really fucking weren’t, and Frank Iero was a grinning fucking asshole that was just asking for a slap across the fact by now.

"She's probably just jealous that you're getting laid and she's not." Frank insisted, but Gerard was really quite convinced that that really wasn't the case. "Oh, come on, your mum's probably at work right now, like, I don't know doing paperwork and filing and shit, and you? You're getting laid, Gerard Way."

"Is that so?" Gerard finally managed to choke out, losing their cool just a little, because Frank Iero was hot as hell.

"Yeah, I promise you." Frank pulled away from Gerard, grinning to himself like the world's biggest fucking idiot. "I told you that there was no point staying downstairs- hey, we didn't even bother with a film or takeaway yet, like... we could save that for later, though?"

Gerard shrugged a little, biting their lip and looking away. "O-okay."

"You're nervous, aren't you?" Frank sighed out, sitting up and letting Gerard lean into his side. "That's okay, you know? I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to - as I said, I'm not-"

"Yeah, whatever asshole." Gerard rolled their eyes, smiling at Frank, because they knew that they were fucking lucky to have the world's least assholeish asshole for a boyfriend.

"Shall we get takeaway first?" Frank suggested, running his hand through Gerard's hair. "Only if you want, of course."

"Yeah." Gerard nodded, whilst trying their hardest not to blush, but failing spectacularly, as usual. "Can we get pizza, with cheese and no shitty toppings?"

"Yeah - cheese and no shitty toppings." Frank grinned at them, before getting up and grabbing his cellphone: texting the delivery place as Gerard sighed out into the room around them, as they wondered just how long it'd be before the gathered the guts to tell Frank that they loved him, because there simply wasn't a single doubt about it anymore.

"I like you a lot." Gerard settled for the second best to an 'I love you' when Frank had put his phone down. "Like, really, a lot." They promised Frank with wide eyes.

"I like you too." Frank copied, stopping for a moment to think about the three words that he couldn't quite say either. "We're pathetic, but that's okay, because we're fucking cute."

"Yeah, we are." Gerard agreed, leaning into Frank's side: thinking all too much about how they felt inside and actual emotions and feelings until their brain exploded and every ounce of intelligence dissolved all at once. "Can we watch Star Wars?"

Frank snorted at first, rolling his eyes at the fucking nerd sat next to him, well kind more on top of him by now. "Fine."

-


	18. Mikey Gay

Although Gerard's lovelife was blossoming like never before, which was seriously so unreal that Mikey was starting to believe that they'd sold their soul to the devil for this to somehow work out, but in the case of Mikey Way, things couldn't be more different.

He had still fucked up with Pete, and things were still awkward between the two of them as Mikey continued to struggle to figure out just what this had meant and just what he wanted it to be, because if there had never been anything in the first place, perhaps he would have been complacent with the nothingness and dull heartache of loneliness and fucking the odd girl every month or so, but with this... no, not anymore.

It had happened and Pete had made it something- well, Mikey had made it the kind of something that was destroying him: Pete had just done something, even if that something was getting drunk and kissing him, but Mikey had really made it something, and that was something to cry and scream about in silence as he watched from his bedroom window as Frank made his way down the driveway again: another date with Gerard or something - Mikey didn't particularly want the details, and he most definitely didn't want to be here when they were fucking with no concern for just how loud they were being.

But Mikey just hadn't got Pete to run to and laugh it off with whilst getting drunk anymore: that was all weird and it was different, and Mikey didn't like it at all, and he wanted out - he wanted quits but the game had already begun and he was forced to stick it out until the end.

Mikey sighed out, hearing Gerard and Frank greet each other downstairs and groaning internally, because fuck, he'd rather go and fuck everything up with Pete than force himself to witness this- and you know what? Maybe he fucking would.

Perhaps there was just no better motivation than the fear of hearing Gerard having sex with their boyfriend. Whatever, Mikey didn't care all that much for the specifics of it, as long as it got him pulling on the nearest hoodie he found as he grabbed his cellphone and made his way downstairs, grabbing the attention of Gerard and Frank as he reached the foot of the stairs.

"I'm going out, don't worry, I'm not here to listen to you two make out or, worse." Mikey groaned, pulling his hood up, and barely making eye contact with Gerard as spoke, leaving Frank to raise his eyebrows a little at the friend that he hadn't really spoken to in a week or so now: truth be told, Frank was spending an awful lot of time with Gerard, and by an awful lot, Frank was practically spending all of his time with Gerard, but it wasn't like Mikey was jealous, because this wasn't a gay thing and Mikey already had one life ruining gay thing going on, and fucking hell, he was not in the mood for another.

"Shut up." Gerard blushed as they spoke what was the least enthusiastic retort, and really, was generally nothing but laughably pathetic. "We're not going to fuck on the sofa, Mikey."

"Of course you're not." Mikey wasn't convinced to say the least, but really, he didn't have the time or motivation to actually stick around and argue his way through this mess. "Whatever, just remind me not to sit there for like ever."

"Mikey, we're not-" Frank protested, his eyes widening as he shook his head like a fucking liar, because really, Mikey saw how this was - he really did.

"Oh, but you are. Come on, I know what it's like - empty house and you're already downstairs- look, I've done it before." Gerard made a disgusted face. "On other people's sofas, asshole - I'm not gross enough to want to sit in my own semen, unlike some people."

"Mikey-" Gerard's efforts were useless, as Mikey only shrugged it off, brushing past the two of them and making his way through the door, leaving them the trouble of locking it behind him, because fuck it, Mikey had to time to waste by pacing throughout the neighbourhood as he tried to psych himself up into texting Pete and arranging some sort of friendly non-homosexual thing.

Then again, Mikey could just burst in and demand that Pete explained the homosexuality of the situation to him, but like, Pete's mum could be there, or Pete could be home alone jacking off, and if there was one sure-fire way to make this situation a million times worse, it was most definitely walking in on that.

And perhaps just that was motivation enough to have Mikey's cellphone out of his pocket and in his hands: his fingers tapping out the least homosexual message he could muster, which really was ridiculous, because Mikey was actually supposed to be straight, and really Gerard, who was probably fucking their boyfriend right now could probably do a better job than him.

Pete texted back far too soon, and Mikey cringed at his text-tone, putting off reading the response by grabbing his headphones from his pocket and putting them in: putting his music on shuffle, and finding himself horribly unsatisfied with the music choice at least seven times before actually just resorting to finding the one track he actually wanted to listen to and playing that instead.

And by then, Pete had already texted back three times, and fuck it, Mikey was not at all prepared for this, and really, he would chose the sounds of Gerard and Frank fucking over this, any fucking day- well, maybe not, maybe, just maybe- fuck.

Fuck, Mikey was indecisive, and fuck, it was killing him, and really, he was doing a pretty good job of just keeping on walking and pretend that the message notifications were somehow invisible, but of course, then Pete texted a fourth time, and Mikey had to completely screw himself over by accidentally clicking on the pop up out of habit.

And fuck his life, because Pete knew he'd seen them now.

Perhaps it wasn't as bad as Mikey had been expecting because in response to his simple, yet awkward and nowhere near heterosexual enough 'hey, uhh can I come over just to like hang and talk and shit?' Mikey received nothing more but fucking Pete Wentz being an asshole 'I don't know, can you?'.

It had taken Pete all of two minutes to decide that his first response wasn't quite cutting it before he responded with 'okay sure I guess, mikeyway x', and then another minute break that Pete had spent debating the next message, 'you bring the condom', and then the final one, most likely in 'regret' of the one prior, 'I was joking, unless you actually want to because then... ;)'.

Seriously, fuck Pete Wentz.

It took Mikey the whole of four minutes to gather the strength to message him back with something either blatantly homophobic or blatantly homosexual - it was one or the other with Mikey right now, and with no hope of the calm and just grey in-between that would be the heaven of normality and not having this awkward fucked up not quite relationship with his best friend who he once thought slept with his ex-girlfriend.

'No thanks pete. I'll be like five minutes.'

And that was all Mikey managed in four minutes of talking down his homosexuality and the urge to respond with a series of highly homosexual and very indiscreet emojis, that Pete would make awkward by failing to understand at first, and then like showing it to his mum to explain, who would totally get it and be like what the fuck and then ground Pete and shot Mikey through the chest on his way to school tomorrow.

Thankfully, Mikey had gone for the non-homosexual option, as really, he didn't at all fancy dying: see, this was why it was just better that he left the whole thing with Pete as it was, because guys and well, doing them, maybe that was more of Gerard's thing than his, and maybe that was okay, because being a massive fucking virgin was another one of Gerard's things, and that most certainly didn't apply to Mikey, even in an alternate universe where they lived on Jupiter and Pete was a camel with four breasts and a milky asshole.

Mikey arrived much sooner than he'd promised Pete, and hated himself for it: hated the way his feet had almost seemed to trick him and lead him right to Pete's doorstep, because fuck, it was like he was trying to kill himself here, and really, it did look like it was on its way to success right now.

Mikey's phone buzzed, causing him to jump a little, and totally interrupting him from staring awkwardly at the chipped paint on Pete Wentz's front door.

'I know you're outside. The fucking door's open, asshole.'

Mikey blushed like hell, looking up to see Pete peering out his bedroom window and grinning down at Mikey.

He flipped Pete off in response, because damn, he fucking deserved it like that, however Pete opened the window in response, and god, this was getting ridiculous.

"That's really rude." Pete commented, narrowing his eyes a little, and watching as Mikey stood back a little to see Pete more easily, and most likely to have some hope of catching him when he inevitably fell from his bedroom window. "Come on, inside, Mikeyway."

"You're going to fall and die." Mikey commented like the happy optimistic person he was, and of course, Pete, being Pete, only shrugged in response, and Mikey wondered just how he could possibly be quite so indifferent to falling out his bedroom window and dying as he cracked his skull open on the pavement outside, right in front of his best friend, who was having a little bit of a gay dilemma with him right now.

"Don't be so negative!" Pete stressed, grinning that 'my parents aren't home so I've drunk like six beers' grin that Mikey had grown to hate, because dear god, right now, that fucking smile and just what it meant was going to get him killed. "Hey- oh my god- I can do that Romeo and Juliet thing with the window- Mikey stand there and be Romeo and ridiculously handsome- what am I talking about you are ridiculously handsome already but stand there and look like you're from the eighth century."

"I don't think Shakespeare was from the eighth century, Pete." Mikey's eyes widened up at his friend, not at all sure as to what to make of this, but somehow, he found himself standing exactly where Pete wanted him to, and maybe, just maybe, it was something to do with the fact that Pete had called him 'ridiculously handsome', hell that wasn't helping his desperate claim to heterosexuality, but it was most certainly helping his ego.

"Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo?" Pete called, fanning himself with his hand and giggling like the amount of beers he'd had was closer to sixty than six. "Come on, say your bit!"

"You know what, I'll just go inside and we can talk upstairs and not... not... re-enact gay Shakespeare." Mikey blushed a little as he pulled his sleeves up and made his way towards the front door.

"Stop cockblocking yourself, Mikey - Romeo totally gets laid!" Pete's knowledge of Shakespeare was rather limited, to say the least, but Mikey wasn't exactly in the mood to correct him.

"He also dies." He added as he slammed the front door behind him and thought twice before making his way upstairs, because really, was forcing himself to go through this gay Shakespeare shit with Pete the best idea right now, but as he heard a bedroom door slam, it became rather apparent that perhaps Mikey just didn't have any choice in the matter.

"Romeo, you know you're fucking stupid it's totally your fault we both die in the end." Pete groaned as he made his way downstairs, almost tackling Mikey with a hug at the bottom, before dragging him into the living room and forcing him into the sofa beside Pete.

"Can we cut out the gay Shakespeare?" Mikey suggested, eyebrows raised entirely more than he'd deem necessary, but fuck it, he was shaking a little and god, Pete was not doing him any favours here, but fuck, at least he wasn't doing him any sexual favours, at least not right now anyway.

And Mikey just hoped that things would stay that way, but it was Pete, and the likelihood was that it wouldn't.

"Okay, we'll get down to the real reason you're here, Mikey - now tell me, did you bring the condom or will I have to go get one?"

"Pete, just-" Mikey shook his head, getting up from the sofa and making his way towards the door before his conscious could stop him, because fuck, this was all nothing more than the world's biggest train wreck, and he could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

"What? Mikey? This is simple and you know it." Pete's tone turned all too serious and all too soon, and god, it had Mikey's head spinning like crazy, because Pete wasn't supposed to make sense, because if Pete started making sense then soon enough he'd seem like the fucked up one, and really, that was just not something that his head was quite ready to stomach just yet.

"It's not simple, Pete, it's anything but simple." Mikey shook his head, promising Pete as he slowly wandered back into the room and towards his best friend, who he was finding far more attractive than he should, but fuck, fuck these stupid feelings and fuck everything, because Mikey's head was spinning and Pete was smiling the cutest smile Mikey had ever seen and now it was just a matter of holding back himself from just jumping Pete and kissing the hell out of him.

Mikey reckoned that would spark an interesting reaction, to say the least, but as to what kind of reaction, with Pete you could never tell, and maybe it was just better if Mikey didn’t know, but fuck, it was killing him regardless, and maybe, just maybe, he'd have to deal with that someday.

He knew that, and realistically the inevitability of that fact, but god, he just hated how it looked like that would be a fact that he'd have to deal with today - he doubted he could handle that if he was honest.

"It is - you either like me or you don't: fucking sort yourself out and make your mind up, because I've made a decision - I've made many, and really I'm not going to stop making you feel awkward by relentlessly flirting with you until you make your mind up, just so we don't say in this awful limbo forever, okay? But if you say that we're just friends and that that's your final decision, then fine, I'll stop, but I won't half call you a liar first, because if this really was nothing and we're just friends, then you're making an awfully big deal out of nothing, don't you think?"

Mikey sighed out, sitting back down on the sofa beside Pete and pulling his knees up to his chest, curling himself in and sighing out: his face pressed into his knees, before pulling away from the foetal position to face Pete again. "I don't know how I feel, Pete, I honestly don't."

"Well, you've had forever to think about it, don't you think?" Pete snapped in response: impatience clearly getting the better of him, and perhaps Mikey didn't entirely blame him, because damn, he was the one who'd come here for answers and he was the one fucking everyone around, and he was the one who'd spent at least fifteen minutes stalling by pacing the roads between his and Pete's house - that was all him whilst all Pete had ever done was kiss him with the aid of too much alcohol, and tripped the homosexuality censor that had thrown Mikey's sanity off several galaxies away.

"I'm sorry." 

Mikey didn't apologise a lot of the time, and especially not to people that weren't Gerard: perhaps Gerard was the only person Mikey really cared about wholeheartedly, and even then, he still acted like the world's biggest asshole to them, so really, if he was actually making an effort to speak to and maybe sort things out with Pete, god knows how he feels about him, and fuck, it most certainly a heterosexual kind of feeling, to say the least.

"And what does that mean?" Pete sighed out, shaking his head in Mikey's direction: sick and tired of this and just wanting it to end, no matter how it did, even if it ended in fallout and disaster, that would still surely be better than this hell of a limbo, because Pete's heart was beating in double time or just not at all.

"I'm sorry." Mikey repeated, his tone a little more questioning this time, but Pete didn't seem to care.

"What does that mean? Is that a 'I don't like you, I'm sorry' or a 'I'm sorry, I want to kiss you', or a 'I'm sorry I'm pathetic and god for nothing and can't make my mind up' or a 'I'm sorry I've kept you waiting so long for an answer but here it is', or a 'I'm sorry your dog's dead', because Mikey, like this, I don't have a fucking clue - words, use them."

"That's an I'm sorry. An I'm sorry that I don't know what's going on in my own head, that's an I'm sorry that I spent fifteen minutes pacing and psyching myself up to actually arrive, that's an I'm sorry that I care so much, and this is an I'm sorry that I have to say sorry, because I don't say it a lot, and there's even fewer occasions on which I actually mean it, but this is for real and you're my best friend, and my head's spinning because everything's a mess right now."

"Okay." Pete sighed out: not entirely expecting that and hating how this only served to draw out the hell of not knowing further, because fuck, Pete wasn't sure that was something he could take for all that much longer, but maybe, just maybe, for Mikey, he'd try. "Tell me about what's going on and why your head's a mess, and then, maybe when it's cleaned up you can think of a yes or no answer, huh?"

Mikey smiled a little at that, because the way Pete phrased it did really make it sound nothing but ridiculous, and perhaps it was, and perhaps he was just being the asshole here, but whatever, he only nodded in response, and Pete turned to sit facing him and smiled, he really smiled.

"I'm sorry too." Pete added, sitting cross-legged. "I did sleep with Alicia. I'm sorry."

Mikey's eyes widened so much that they nearly popped out of their sockets. "What the fuck, Pete? You could have told me!"

"Okay, I was scared, but now it doesn't matter, so it's okay- I mean, I've heard rumours that she's like dating Lindsey Ballato now-"

"Are you serious?" Mikey exclaimed, his eyes almost falling onto his lap at this point. "I missed the lesbian part? I never once asked her about having a threesome the whole time we were dating fuck my life, Pete, I fucked up-"

"Yeah, you did. You fucked up with her because you were being an asshole about it so she dumped you and she's not your girlfriend anymore, and we're here because you can't decide if you're going to allow yourself to date me or not - that’s what's happening here, Mikey." Pete reminded him, smiling just a little at the 'allowing yourself' part, because they both really knew that there wasn't a chance in hell that Mikey didn't have even the tiniest crush on Pete by now.

"So would you have a threesome, Pete?" Mikey asked, grinning just a little, and generally just doing all he could to pull the subject away from homosexuality, and really, having a threesome with his best friend wasn't exactly the best method to do so, but whatever, he'd tried. 

"Who with?" Pete asked, raising his eyebrows a little, because this really wasn't the most heterosexual question Mikey could have asked, and it certainly wasn't helping his case at all.

"Me and Alicia." Mikey shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"Yeah, because Alicia's going to ignore her girlfriend to fuck two guys she doesn't even like-"

"Invite Lindsey and make it a foursome." Mikey suggested, shrugging it off and leaving Pete to reconsider even bringing it up in the first place.

"Come on, you're supposed to be talking to me, like really talking, and not just going on about foursomes with the only lesbians you know, anyway, if Alicia dated you then that makes her bisexual, doesn't it?" Mikey shrugged in response, clearly not all that bothered about the technicalities of his weird sexual fantasy that just happened to involve Pete Wentz.

"Gerard came out as non-binary about a week ago." Mikey started, knowing he'd regret talking to Pete about anything that mattered soon enough. "They use they/them pronouns now, and it was a bit weird at first, but it's okay and they're much happier now, and they're dating Frank- and fuck, that's something I'm not supposed to telling you, but Gerard and Frank are dating and it's really kind of cute actually. I'm just glad he's happy, but then again, I feel like shit because I can't do romance and relationships for shit: I'm just a failure and this is the living proof of that.

"I'm glad for him. Didn't expect that though-"

"Them." Mikey found himself correcting within seconds, leaving Pete blushing a little: embarrassed, because he hadn't meant to be an asshole about it: he just wasn’t exactly experienced with this.

"Sorry. I'm glad they're happy." Pete corrected himself with an awkward smile. "You really care about Gerard, don't you? I know you pretend to hate them, but you two are really close, like you want them to be happy more than you want anything."

Mikey only shrugged in response: blushing a little, because damn, that was totally giving his sensitive side away and that really wasn't the best idea in front of Pete Wentz.

"Gerard's been through a lot, and I'm just happy that they're not sad anymore. Things weren't all that good a few years ago - not my shit to tell, but it wasn't a good time for them, to say the least." Mikey sighed out, leaning into Pete's side in a totally heterosexual manner. "Also my mum keeps grounding me for smoking weed like every five seconds, and it's totally annoying, because it's not like I'm prostituting to make money for crack cocaine or something."

"Yeah, that's just what she doesn't know." Pete teased, grinning a little as he slid an awkward homosexual arm around Mikey. "You totally prostitute for crack: you're a total whore for crack, you crackwhore."

"Mhhmm..." Mikey smiled a little, blushing because god, Pete had lured him into a gay trap with those stupid jokes and now they were practically cuddling and Mikey was so fucking fucked. "It's you, it's mainly you, you're everything and the mess and I care too much and I don't know what that means."

"It means whatever you want it to." Pete promised him, running his hand through Mikey's hair, and leaving Mikey to just accept how gay this was and just how much gay it was going to get, when Mikey got the guts, that was, of course.

"I don't know what I want, though." Mikey sighed out, leaning back into Pete's touch: homosexual, but relaxing nonetheless. "I just want everything to be okay and for everything bad to go away, and I want to smoke weed and not get grounded."

"You could smoke weed in my bedroom if you want: my mum has this fucking crazy air freshener thing that like gases the whole room out and nearly kills you in the process but totally eradicates the room of any suspicious smells."

"Do you use that after making meth or something?" Mikey asked, wide eyed.

"Usually only after jacking off like really damn hard - pun totally intended because puns are great, but you know, when you're parents aren't home and there's some really great porn involved and maybe there's this boy that you can't stop thinking about it..." Pete trailed off, knowing he'd gone entirely too far then.

"Jacking off sounds really good now, you know, that makes me less stressed and it really fucking helps me clear my head, god, smoking weed and jacking off, that'd be cool... fuck... I'm sorry-"

"You know what's better than jacking off?" Pete smirked, meeting Mikey's gaze, intimidating him just a little, but fuck it, it was Pete: he'd heard it all a million times already.

"What?"

"Blowjobs." Pete grinned, grabbing Mikey by the hand and pulling him up from the sofa. "Come on, let's go upstairs - I think I have some weed at the back of my cupboard or something, actually."

"Pete's that's like really fucking gay, though."

"So?" Pete stood there, staring Mikey straight- well, really not, in the eye. "You were about to jack off with me here - what's the difference? Look, come on, I know you like me - it's obvious and you don't know the fucking meaning of the word 'subtlety', all that's holding you back it's this stupid innate homophobia, and fuck it, Mikey, it's like when they tell you that smoking weed is bad, yet you do that anyway. Come on, you're already going to hell, please let me suck your dick."

"Fuck it, whatever."

Mikey rolled his eyes, pulling off a total 'no homo' as he struggled, but somehow succeeded in masking the real response he wanted to give, which of course was nothing more than an eager 'yes please'.

Fuck it, Mikey Way was not straight, to say the least, and Pete Wentz was living proof of that.

-


	19. Mikey Finally Grows Some Balls

Frank was love struck: all gooey and pathetic on the inside, and dear god, it was getting harder and harder to hide it from anyone in the world who ever had the slightest ounce of respect for him at all.

Gerard was different, because with them, he didn't have to try: it was all natural and it was just fucking perfect and Frank felt pathetic even thinking about it, but it felt right, and Gerard was everything, and cute as hell, and Frank just cared far too much about what people thought of him.

His mum was definitely starting to suspect something: Frank hadn't broken anything in the house for at least a week now, and Mrs Iero was beginning to grow just a little concerned, and every evening when she got in from work, she found herself almost praying to see her favourite vase smashed on the floor or something, but she saw nothing.

Mrs Iero was on the wrong track in her suspicions, though: she reckoned that Frank was depressed or being bullied or something, when really, it was nothing short of the opposite, but Frank wasn't known to act like this - he was supposed to be 'tough' - the kind of guy who fucked things up and got into trouble for the damn hell of it, and Mrs Iero had found a certain comfort in the routine and the call from the school about the window he'd smashed and then the argument with her husband about just who'd have to work overtime in order to cover the repair costs.

She'd never thought that anything was wrong with her son until now, which was much to the contrary of the many school counsellors and nosy teachers that dug just a little too deep in things that were just not their business. They reckoned Frank had learning difficulties or that he was being abused or he was depressed or that had ADHD, and really, it differed with every one, but Mrs Iero just knew that Frank was Frank and that he was like that - he broke things sometimes and got into more trouble at school than he probably should, but otherwise he was a good kid: he was nice and he meant well.

He usually walked Daisy, their dog, everyday, and he was always complaining about his homework or something, and well, the house was always a fucking mess when she got home, and there wasn't one instance in which she hadn't been forced to run up to her son's bedroom and yell at him to turn the music down, which he reluctantly did so.

But not anymore: Frank was quiet, and complacent, even, and that just wasn't natural, it just wasn't Frank, so really, Mrs Iero wouldn't be all that surprised if soon enough she found herself just damn asking him to break something to stop her head fucking spinning like this: she was a worrier, to say the least.

She'd asked Mr Iero about this, but he didn't spend all that much time at home, having to work until seven except on Sundays, and hadn't really noticed much, and really, that was supposed to settle her doubts and questions, but it didn't, and by today: a fucking Wednesday, when fucking Susan at work had fucking spilt fucking coffee down her shirt 'accidentally', she found herself giving up and growing tired of this mess and this cause for concern, and she made her way into her son's bedroom, almost catching him by surprise as she did so.

"I haven't got... music... it's quiet... I..." Frank was a little startled to see his mother walk into his bedroom with such a vigour, and really, he was just overjoyed that she hadn't left it one minute later because he was just about to jack off, and that really would have been awkward, to say the least.

"I know. You're not yourself these days, and it's worrying me." She shut the door behind her and sat down beside Frank on his bed, glancing over at his cellphone, but he'd turned the screen off the very moment the door had even opened - he was a teenager, after all. "What happened to the loud music and the getting in trouble and the breaking things and that friend of yours, Bert? I haven't seen him in a while. Are you okay?"

"You don't even like Bert: you've told me that a million times." Frank reminded her: just a little confused by just what his mother was getting at here.

"Yeah, he's obnoxious and rowdy, and he- but you like him and that's what matters - he's not my friend, after all. Is everything alright?" She repeated herself, disappointed at the lack of a direct answer, and really, Frank just didn't know what to say, because yeah, he was fucking better than ever, but he wasn't the self that she was used to, not at all.

"Yeah, I... I'm fine." He promised her, smiling a little, but it was unconvincing, and that was guilt, and that was the Gerard Way shaped weight on his chest: the secret that was crushing him, the crush that had become something more, and now Frank was falling, both into a metaphorical well, and in love.

Frank's phone screen lit up as if it had something else to add, and really it did, well Gerard did: the screen having lit up with a message from them - an attached image, a heart emoji and a winky face, and if that was a dick pic Frank was going to kill them.

Of course, it wasn't a dick pic, because it was Gerard, and they were cute and awkward, and nowhere near comfortable enough with their body to let Frank see their dick, let alone via image form where Frank could save it... or Frank's mum could see it.

"Who's that from?" She asked, raising her eyebrows a little at the screen - the contact name was 'G' so it wasn't an immediate homosexuality alarm bell, but... Frank was getting fucking close to just falling right out of the closet.

"Gerard." He answered her before he could really think about the heart emoji attached to that message and the rather homosexual connotations it held.

"Oh." Mrs Iero didn't quite know what to make of that and she didn't quite know what to ask. "Who's Gerard? How do you know him?"

"Them. Them... I know them from school... I sit next to them in art and they're really good at art and it's amazing and they're best friends with Lindsey - you know, Lindsey? Lindsey's the one who-"

"Set fire to the sofa that one time... yes." Mrs Iero didn't have particularly found memories of Lindsey Ballato to say the least. "Them?" She paused for a moment, considering what her son had just said. "That's a..."

"They're non-binary... it's a gender thing... they use they/them pronouns instead of the ones they were assigned at birth." Frank explained, holding his breath, as he expected nothing less than the absolute worst.

"Okay." Mrs Iero paused for a moment. "Are you-"

"No." Frank laughed a little at that: she was over worrying, to say the least. "No, I'm still a dude, I promise."

"Anything else you want to tell me?" She asked, thinking entirely too hard about that heart and just what it could possibly mean, because there was no question about the fact that it meant something. "Something about you and Gerard, perhaps? I saw that heart, Frank."

And Frank nearly died at that point, because this was really not a cool thing to talk about with his mum. "I... I... I... can't... say it... but... it... it's what you think it is." And that was probably the closest he'd ever come to coming out to anyone, properly, that was: it was different with Gerard - everything was always different with Gerard.

"That's okay, you know, that's okay, Frank. Is that what's bothering you?" She asked, leaning onto her son in a way that was totally not cool where Frank's ego was concerned.

"Kind of... I... just... things are different now... I'm going all pathetic and gooey on the inside and I don't know if I like it or not... I don't need to punch things anymore and I don't quite know what to make of that, and I can't tell my friends - people, like Bert, I mean, because well, they wouldn't... they... they wouldn't get the gender thing and they especially wouldn't take kindly to the fact that I'm dating someone with a dick- I... it's... it's... gay. I'm gay... there I said it... mum, I'm gay."

Mrs Iero only grinned at met her son's gaze. "I know." She paused for a moment. "I'm glad that they're making you happy, I'm glad that you're happy, and I'm sorry that I feel weird when you're not causing trouble but that's been you since first grade, come on, Frank, we both know that. But I'd like to meet h- them... I want to figure out just who can change you like that."

Frank laughed a little at that, blushing far more than he'd ever like to in front of his mother. "Yeah... I... they're cute. They're really... goddamn... I... I-"

Frank's cellphone lit up again with another message from Gerard, and fucking hell, Frank was going to kill them for fucking making him get emotional and personal with his mum, because fuck, that wasn't supposed to happen - not at all.

Come over. I miss you.

And at least seven thousand heart emojis - Gerard was kind of overdoing it, but Frank knew they were a massive fucking dork and didn't really care all that much.

"Or they could come here." Mrs Iero smirked, winking at her son as she stood up and made her way towards the door to get back to her life of very little interesting, but now with the knowledge that her son was alright.

Mrs Iero wasn't a perfect mother by any means, but she damn well tried her best, and Frank reckoned that he really didn't give her the credit she deserved for that, and it was only situation such as these that lived to prove that fact.

Frank sat in silence for at least a minute before texting Gerard back, and maybe Frank was just a little too soppy right now, because he'd actually listened to his mum's advice and texted them back with a 'come over to mine. My mum wants to meet you... I’ll explain later'.

Your mum? I'm nervous!!!

Gerard was just a little panicked to see Frank's response, but they were enough in love with him to do whatever he said, and wit

h a quick excuse muttered in Mikey's direction, Gerard Way was out of the front door and on their way to Frank's house: Mikey had been oddly quiet recently anyway.

It'll be fine. I promise.

Frank texted enough 'x's to warrant the use of copy and paste before pocketing his phone and grabbing a cleaner shirt to put on, before making his way downstairs.

"So?" Mrs Iero called from the living room, raising her eyebrows a little. "What's happening?"

"They're coming over- they live pretty close... it's not... long..." And it was only now that Frank was really starting to get nervous and god, it was killing him and he was absolutely in no way prepared for this, but, fuck it, buttfuck it, because this was already happening and Frank just needed to regrow those fucking balls of his.

"Tell me the basics about them because I've known of their existence for all of five minutes, Frank, and I don't want to be rude." And Frank couldn't help but laugh just a little at that, before just giving in and doing as his mother said.

"They're called Gerard... Gerard Way... uhh... seventeen years old... with a brother called Mikey that I'm friends with... Mikey's younger - fifteen. I met Mikey before I got close with Gerard - like I knew them generally from school, but we didn't start to hang out until I started going over to Mikey's regularly. They're friends with Lindsey Ballato and Alicia Simmons, and Alicia's Mikey's ex and I don't think Mikey's ever got over that... it's a weird kind of sibling thing... they love each other that's... that goes with out question, but it's odd, to say the least."

"You like them an awful lot, don't you?" Mrs Iero couldn't help but notice the lovestruck look in her son's eyes as he spoke, and really, Frank couldn't help but fucking die inside from blushing about it afterwards, but either fortunately or unfortunately, the doorbell rang and Gerard had arrived before Frank could even begin to consider an acceptable answer to that question.

And really, Frank doubted that there even was one, but he definitely had much more to worry about right now.

-

And yet, somehow, clarification and 'talking' it over had only seemed to render Mikey Way more confused. Sexually, that was, for the most part, anyway: he was also very confused when it came to his maths homework, amongst other things, but that wasn't exactly the point here.

The point here was in the fact that Mikey was curled up home alone, just sat there thinking about Pete fucking Wentz, and not even exploiting the opportunity to take advantage of his brother's porn collection or even break something and blame it on Gerard - in fact, Mikey was somewhat disappointed with himself right now.

But it still wasn't Pete's fault: it was always nothing but his own and as Gerard had made their way off to go see Frank or something, the patheticness of his situation really began to sink in.

And Mikey was pathetic and Pete just liked him and that was hardly his fault: Pete liked him, like really liked him, and Mikey just couldn't get his head around that and these thoughts in his head, and these feelings in his heart, and the sensation in his dick-

Not that that was the kind of thought he wanted to have without porn to sort out any repercussions with.

Mikey was almost certain of his pathetic demeanour by now and this was just sealing the deal, and the doorbell had rung at least three times now without him noticing him: his life was a rinse and repeat cycle of typing out a text to Pete, and deleting it just before his finger could press down on the send button.

He had put too much power into the send button and the one message: he'd put too much power into this and everything: Pete could destroy and ruin him, and he was unwilling to allow that to happen.

It was a mess: he was a mess, and the message was deleted for the fifteenth time as the doorbell rang for the fifth, and something inside him finally started to work as he jumped off the sofa before his head could even catch up to his body: all instinct, and his heart working with his head left back at the finish line.

Mikey answered the door in sweatpants. He answered the door in sweatpants and what was probably Gerard's shirt, and that would have probably been fine if it his mum having forgotten the key or the postman, or someone trying to sell him something who he'd never have to see again, but it wasn't, and for Mikey in sweatpants and Gerard's shirt - this was a worst case scenario.

Well, maybe not.

It wasn't Pete.

And Mikey was eternally thankful for that: although he thought it more likely to be simply a mishap on God's part as opposed to any display of sympathy whatsoever.

But Alicia Simmons was still his ex-girlfriend, even if Mikey had gotten really gay all of a sudden, and sweatpants and Gerard's shirt still wasn't exactly the kind of impression she wanted to make: Alicia seemed to give absolutely zero fucks in regard to what Mikey looked like, and the whole lesbian rumour echoed throughout his mind, as he found himself considering its likelihood for a few moments, before he'd released that Alicia had actually said something.

"Is Gerard there? I need to talk to them." Of course, of course she was here for Gerard, and not the awkward excuse for a fifteen year old boy that she used to date, of course, and Mikey knew that, and he didn't care, because he was already preoccupied with ruining his life with this stupid thing with Pete, and anything with Alicia right now would probably just about kill him, so maybe, just maybe, the sweatpants were a good idea after all.

"N-No..." It took Mikey far too long to answer, and Alicia raised her eyebrows in response, looking him up and down with a badly bitten back smirk. "They're at Frank's-... but I wouldn't exactly suggest going there, because well..."

Alicia laughed at that, knowing exactly what Mikey was suggesting there. "Good point." She paused for a moment, her smile fading back into a neutral expression. "Can I... can... I really need to talk to someone about this... Gerard was just my first priority... look... if you can keep a secret, I'd really appreciate you just to listen to me: I don't even need advice, frankly, I don't trust your advice, but, I need... I-"

"Come in." And Mikey in sweatpants and Gerard's shirt made the worst decision of his life by letting Alicia Simmons inside and offering her a drink and really anything to pass the time, but they ended up in the living room on the sofa, and lost in a good four minute silence before Alicia finally gained the courage to explain.

"It's really important you don't tell people about this. You know that, don't you, Mikey?" Alicia repeated, meeting the fifteen year old's gaze and placing extra stress upon her words in emphasis of her point.

"Yeah." Mikey nodded, flashing her a 'comforting' smile, well... it was intended as such, but it came out to be slightly unnerving, if anything. "Why? Don't you trust me or something?"

"Yeah... well, you're my ex-boyfriend and I... it's expected that I don't fully trust you, but we've both moved on now, and I guess we can be civil acquaintances, and sometimes friends: that's if you ever learn to disregard your ego, of course."

"I don't have an ego problem." Mikey sounded far more like he was trying to convince himself of that fact, but whatever, it wasn't like there was a single chance in hell that Alicia would even ever consider believing him.

She fucking laughed at that, pulling her knees up to her chest and leaning back against the wall: her eyes focused out the front window and sighing a little as she did so. "Something happened yesterday and it's something that I can’t stop thinking about and well I wanted some form of opinion of Gerard's behalf, because well, they know this better than you do, but... I need someone to listen, anyone."

"So what was it that happened?" Mikey tried his best not to come off as awkwardly impatient but he failed almost spectacularly in his task.

"Lindsey and I were at hers." And for Mikey's lesbian theory, this was a promising start, although he highly doubted that something Pete had suggested could possibly bear any truth whatsoever. "And things happened... not- well... we were talking just normally and I- I started talking about things, not important things, but things... I- I'm not making much sense am I?"

"No, you're not." Mikey couldn't help but give her anything but the whole truth, and Alicia smiled a little in response, because, well, it was true.

"I'm nervous. Maybe this would be easier with Gerard, maybe it wouldn't: I don't know, because I'm telling you. This- this doesn't involve Gerard so don't tell them: even if I was going to do: just someone needs to know, and it's going to be you, because they're busy fucking their boyfriend and I-"

Silence: words caught in her throat, and Mikey found himself with a great deal of patience that he never even was aware he possessed.

"Lindsey and I kissed. I did a lesbian thing with my best friend, but I'm not a lesbian, but Lindsey probably is, and... and it's fucking with my head because it was a nice kiss, but- I'm not... I don't... I don't know..." And Mikey just had to sit back for a fucking moment, because holy fuck Pete was right, and fuck- he wanted to call Pete and scream the great news down the line at him, but Mikey was still awkward and melting into the ground whenever he even considered making some form of conversation with Pete, and Alicia was sat there and awaiting some form of response.

"I..." Eloquence was not Mikey's strong point, and rather evidently so.

"I knew you wouldn't understand, but at the very least, don't be an asshole, about it, but- fuck, why the hell did I tell my asshole of an ex-boyfriend that I kissed a girl - don't fucking jack off to that... don't you fucking dare-" Alicia lost her cool and Mikey almost seemed to whir back into life at that: blood running to his head and all at once, and now it was just focusing on not throwing up in Alicia's lap, because that would be awkward, to say the least.

"I... I.." Mikey sighed out, not throwing up, and grabbing Alicia's side, and her attention as she cursed at him, pulling away. "I have a gay thing too... and it's killing me too... I-" And Mikey stopped being able to talk at that point.

"A gay thing? You?" Alicia laughed at first, but it soon became apparent as to just how fucking serious Mikey was, and then, well, she felt guilty to say the least.

"Pete and I keep kissing and it doesn't get any easier with time and it most certainly doesn't just go away: it's just a mess, and I'm just a mess, and I love him but I don't, and I'm gay, but I'm not, and my head starts spinning whenever I start thinking about it and him, because he's cute, but he's not supposed to be."

"Supposed to be is bullshit." It took Alicia just a little longer to respond than she would have liked to, but really, this would have been absolutely shocking news to anyone. "If you think he's cute, then he's cute, and you should tell him so."

"But it's confusing and things don't- I can't... I tried talking to Gerard about this, but it was hard, okay, and then it just got lost in the whole gender thing, but I can't stop thinking about this, and I can't- I can't let it happen either."

"Have you tried to talking to Pete about this?" Alicia asked, still more than a little shocked in regards to the news all round, but, fucking hell, this was damn unexpected, okay.

"I've tried... like a million times, but kissing is easier than talking, and I don't have the fucking guts to get it across via text, because that should be easier but I end up deleting everything a million times, and I get nowhere."

"Hey... at least you have some hope with him, as in you know that he actually likes you and that it's not just a fluke or an experiment, because with Lindsey, it kind of feels like that. She's so confident and beautiful, and... she's sure of herself and everything, and I feel like she's a million times better than me and this was just some sort of experiment to see how I'd react and how things could be, but I have feelings and I'm scared, and I just left after that, and I don't want to face her again, but I have to, and I will, and I want it to happen again, but I'm scared that it will, and I need to stop being scared, but I'm a coward, and-"

"Talk to her about it?" Mikey suggested what seemed like the world's most obvious thing ever, and Alicia found herself laughing like hell at that, because this wasn't a conversation she ever expected to have with her ex-boyfriend at all.

"We're ridiculously pathetic, but hey, look, hey- the one of us who gets this sorted out first wins something, huh? Let's make this a competition; let's make a forfeit, because we're both idiots who'll do nothing otherwise. Come on, you know it." And Mikey fucking nodded, because it was damn true.

"And what would be the forfeit?" Mikey found himself asking, and from the glint in Alicia's eyes, knew he would be regretting soon after.

"The loser has to go on a date with someone of the other person's choosing, and that means anyone... who will oblige, of course, but basically, it's not bad, because you could get laid either way... it's just your choice, isn't it?" And Alicia smirked like she was certain she was going to win, but Mikey knew like hell that she damn well wasn't.

"We'll see, Alicia, we'll see. The game is on, motherfucker." And with that, the two of them found themselves smiling like hell for the first time in far too long, and goddamn this was an absolutely terrible idea.

But whatever, Mikey had no self-control when it came to Alicia Simmons - none whatsoever.

At the very least, though, it ended him with one successful text message to Pete.

'Hi.'

And seven smiley face emojis.

-


	20. Haven't You People Ever Heard Of Growing Some Goddamn Balls?

Gerard and Frank sat in Frank's living room, opposite Mrs Iero, who was glancing between the two of them with an all too smug expression upon her face, and really, there was no question about the fact that it was making Gerard just a little uncomfortable, as they hadn't even met the woman before, but Frank was just incredibly pissed off with his mum, because she was really going to go all out to embarrass him here, and without a single doubt.

"You've done well for yourself here, Frank, they're cute." Mrs Iero grinned to herself, leaving Frank throw his head against Gerard’s side: the older of the two already blushing like hell at the compliment given to them by their boyfriend's mum, of all goddamn people. "So, Gerard, Frank's being incompetent, as usual, so tell me about yourself."

"I'm not incompetent." Frank protested, looking up at his mum with an angry kind of pissed off toddler pout, and Gerard fucking snorted, which earned them one hell of a glare. "Stop it, that's mean."

"Oh shut up." Gerard rolled their eyes, blushing a little as Mrs Iero caught their gaze with a 'please don't start making out while I'm here expression'. "Well... uhh... I'm Gerard... I'm seventeen... I'm... well... I don't know... I'm kind of uninteresting... I do art and drama and those kinds of things, I guess. I really like your son, thank you for not being a horrible person to him about the whole gay thing, because my mum was kind of weird about it."

"Oh, that's just ridiculous, you're still her child, your sexuality, your gender, anything - that's nothing at all in comparison to the fact that she's your mother and she's supposed to love and support you." And it was exactly then that Gerard decided that they loved Frank's mum, not as much as they loved Frank, of course, but a close second, perhaps. "So, when did you come out to your mum?"

"A few months ago, I guess... it was kind of weird, I don't know she was kind of giving me and my brother the whole don't go getting girls pregnant talk and Mikey couldn't stop laughing because he knew, and well, she started telling Mikey not to sleep with girls, and she was a good few years late, let's say. It was kind of weird, but I've known for a long time, and I came out to Mikey ages, like years ago, I mean, he's my brother... we're close, but... we kind of hate each other, but not really, I don't know, it's weird, but I love him a lot, and well, he didn't quite understand it at first, necessarily, but he was accepting... that's just who I am, I mean so..."

"You're lucky to have such a nice brother." She told them, smiling a little, and only coming to notice how Frank had stayed utterly enthralled with Gerard throughout the entire telling of their story after she'd finished speaking, and really, well, it was just cute.

"I know."

"You're my favourite over Mikey." Frank smiled, leaning into Gerard's side, before blushing just a little as he came to remember that his mother was scrutinising his every damn move.

"Shouldn't pick favourites, should you, Frankie?" Gerard winked at their boyfriend in a way that really wasn't appropriate considering that his mum was in the room, but damn, whatever, Gerard had no chill.

"So, Frank, what's the deal with Bert... I mean, you know, I don't like him, but-"

"He was a dickhead to me, started hitting on me and stuff..." Gerard sighed out, answering for Frank, who was just making it blatantly obvious as to just how uncomfortable this question made him.

"He's ga-" 

Gerard panicked, having forgotten about the whole crossdressing thing and why that wasn't exactly the best thing to bring to Frank's mum for just a moment.

"No, he thought I was a girl." Gerard shrugged it off, glancing across at Frank, whose cheeks were really nothing short of a horrible shade of red, but with the situation, it was to be expected.

"They make a convincing girl, like scarily convincing in a short skirt and a face full of make up, I promise, mum." Frank blushed a little, realising far too late that thinking of Gerard in a miniskirt in front of his mum wasn't exactly the best idea, but fuck it, he was already fucked right now.

"Bert's just a general douche, I mean... not the kind of guy I'd want to be associated with, like ever." Gerard added, meeting Frank's gaze and kind of just throwing that out there.

"I used to be a royal asshole when I was friends with him, okay, you know that, don't you, Gerard?" Frank sighed, biting his lip, and avoiding his mum's gaze, because this was really not the best conversation to have whilst she was here, for serious now.

"Mhmm... I know. I did experience it first hand, believe it or not..." Gerard met Frank's gaze: wide eyed and scared, and fuck, they were sold. "Sorry... I... you're the best boyfriend ever now, I promise, I just... it's nothing, don't worry."

"Good, because I l-love you..."

"That was a ballsy move in front of your mum." Gerard grinned a little, glancing across at Mrs Iero who was just a little more amused that Gerard's prior comment than she should have been. "I could have rejected you, like in front of your mum, and that would have been all kinds of embarrassing, wouldn't it? I love you, though, you know that."

"Yeah, I know that, that's why I went for it." Frank grinned that 'I knew what I wads doing all along' grin that was at least ninety five percent utter bullshit, because, well, he was certain that he'd fucked up for about five seconds then.

"Sure." Gerard was unconvinced, but they didn't care, because Frank was cute, and Frank’s mum was definitely considering leaving them to it now.

"I think now's a good time to leave before you two start... well... please don't... I'll be in the other room...." And Frank's face was the colour of a fucking beetroot as his mum stood up and made her way for the door. "But, Frank, I one hundred percent approve of Gerard, you know, which makes a change, because I really don't tend to like your friends, but... Gerard, you're lovely, and I trust you to look after my idiot of a son."

"I'm not an idiot." Frank protested, one hundred percent offended by those cruel, cruel words.

Gerard met his gaze with a small smile. "Sure."

-

Gerard was doing great, absolutely great: Mikey was awkwardly off and sort of cold and there was definitely something to be noted going on between Lindsey and Alicia, but none of that mattered nearly as much as Frank did to them.

Gerard was genuinely happy right now, and really, that was opportunity was close to one in a million, and although they were stupid enough to create another identity in order to get Frank Iero's attention and potentially ruin their life in the process, they weren't quite stupid enough to fuck this newfound happiness up, or at least that was what Gerard liked to think.

They were just about done with Twelfth Night, and really Gerard was just happier the soon that they didn't have to deal with Gabe Saporta practically wetting himself over Gerard in a dress. Then again, there was that incident a few weeks ago now, that had ensured that Gabe had avoided Gerard like the plague, which really had worked in their benefit in the long run, but still, Gerard was just looking forward to getting out of that mess.

He had considered quitting after Twelfth Night. It was a stupid idea, because damn, Gerard was good, they were the goddamn lead in the play, after all, but this was a self confidence thing, this was the advice of a therapist from three years ago, and Gerard reckoned they didn't want to be tied down to that for their rest of their life.

Anyway, they were happy now with Frank, and it was foolish to trust all your happiness and emotions in one person, but Frank Iero really wasn't just 'one person': Frank Iero was the goddamn cutest and most accepting asshole in the goddamn world, and Gerard was goddamn sure of it.

But it didn't matter now, because Gerard was at the theatre for the next few hours, and it had been a goodbye text to Frank with a string of assorted emojis (including a snake, a hat, a chair, and a hamster, and then something that vaguely resembled a blowjob gesture, but even Gerard wasn't sure on that one), and from then on, they'd pocketed their phone, and mentally prepared themself for any possible encounters with Gabe Saporta, really, Gerard was just praying that the guy was somehow just miraculously ill, and maybe it was kind of fucked up to wish illness upon people, but Gabe Saporta was a royal pain in Gerard's butt, and not in the way that Gabe would like to be (thankfully).

At least it wasn't raining today, anyway, and at least Gerard had the slightest damn clue as to who they were and Frank Iero wasn't the boy at the bus stop catcalling Gerard with his asshole of a best friend, but the boy texting Gerard back right now from his bedroom, having not contacted the asshole of a best friend in days now, but Frank didn't care, at all: he had Gerard, and Bert was goddamn irrelevant, and in fact, only certain to fuck this all up, but still, guilt was present deep in the back of Frank's head.

It always was.

And perhaps the same could be said for Gerard as they made their way inside and felt their gaze meeting the all too familiar one of Gabe fucking Saporta, and fuck, because they were one hundred percent out of here and running off to go live as some sort of reject in the African jungle, because fucking Gabe Saporta, seriously... was not Gerard's idea of a fun time.

"I swear you're always fucking late, huh, Way?"

And Gerard mentally groaned to themself, making their way straight past the asshole with far more self confidence than he ever deserved, and just hoping to get this all over with, and get as far away from Gabe Saporta and awkward situations he brought as possible.

"Listen to me, Gerard, come on, dickhead, I'm right here, pretty boy-" And it was like that that Gabe Saporta got Gerard to talk.

"I'm not a boy, Gabe, and even if I was, I certainly wouldn't be your pretty boy, okay? Fuck right off. I have a boyfriend, and I fucking hate you - you fucking ruined my life for months on end, and fuck- no, Gabe, no." Gerard shook their head firmly, leaving Gabe to slowly process the information, and of course, inevitability trip over the 'gender hurdle'.

"Not a boy?" Gabe raised his eyebrows at that, looking Gerard up and down - generally unconvinced. "I can see your dick with jeans that tight, I know you're a boy, which is really helpful, as otherwise, the amount of makeup does make sure that it's not immediately obvious."

"Sex and gender are two different things." Gerard sighed out, knowing by now that Gabe wasn't just going to stop this without them explaining it fully, and most likely, he still wouldn't drop it then. "I'm non binary. They/them pronouns... gender neutral, that kind of thing. I'm not a girl, I'm not a boy... I'm somewhere in between, I guess, I don't know. But your sex that's biological, your genitals, what you were born as yeah, that's what's in your pants, but gender, that's who you identify as - that's pronouns and who you feel comfortable as."

"So instead of Gerard Way, it's like Gerard They." And Gerard was damn close to slapping Gabe at this point.

"Now is not the time for fucking puns, Gabe, I don't like you, okay, fuck off and leave me alone. As I said, I have a boyfriend-" Gerard, of course, knew that it was always the time for puns, but it was just that Gabe Saporta didn't deserve the time for puns, especially when he was going to be such an asshole about it.

"Wait, what, you actually do have a boyfriend? Like, that wasn't just a joke or something?" Gabe's eyes practically popped out of their sockets at this point, and needless to say, that wasn't really helping Gerard's self esteem all that much.

"Yeah, I do. His name's Frank, and he'll kill you if you don't fuck right off." Okay, maybe Gerard was going for a slight overstatement here, considering that Frank was about four centimetres tall and generally incapable of killing anyone, but they hoped that Gabe would just get the idea and leave them alone by now.

"Frank...? Do I not get a last name, Gerard? I need to stalk the shit out of him on Facebook, you know that, don't you-"

"Gabe, do you want me just to find you a fucking boyfriend so you can shut the fuck up and stop harassing me?" Gerard suggested, meeting Gabe’s gaze as the eighteen year old looked to even be seriously considering it.

"Only if he's hot. You have two weeks, Gerard."

"Fucking finally you'll stop, praise the fucking-"

"I going to search your friends list for people called Frank and stalk him from there, still. I'm just curious, I promise."

"I'll block you. I'll cockblock you."

"Fine." And with that, Gabe Saporta pulled himself together as he continued in the daily struggle of working out just how the hell he felt about Gerard fucking Way and their stupid cute smile and fucking nice personality that Gabe didn't deserve.

There couldn't be that many Franks in this town after all.

Let alone, gay Franks. Gay Franks that would consider dating an emo mess, teenage gay emo Franks with issues.

Issues: you had to have them to want to consider boning the great emo fucklord that was Gerard Way, and Gabe knew that more than anyone.

-

Alicia was all nerves, but fuck Mikey, and fuck that stupid pact, because these nerves were giving her a goddamn headache and she could barely understand what the fuck was going on in her French class normally, let alone with her skull caving in on itself: determined to kill her in the goddamn lesson if she didn't stop glancing across the room at Lindsey, because it was the sixteenth time in ten minutes now, and that was getting fucking obsessive.

And fuck Lindsey and her self confidence, and her sexuality and how on earth she actually had the slightest fucking clue as to what she was actually doing, because Alicia was like a lost, slightly gay puppy, because this wasn't nothing: sixteen- seventeen glances in ten minutes wasn't nothing.

And Lindsey Ballato was wearing an especially short skirt today, and yes, Alicia really had noticed.

Alicia didn't exactly have an excess of security and self respect - she'd dated Mikey Way for several months after all, but then again, that was a dark time when she was friends with fuckboys and Bob Bryar who sold weed to the whole school, and didn't have two best friends who she actually cared about, and in the case of one of them, was a little bit in love with.

Maybe this was an improvement, and perhaps the only consolation to Alicia as she looked at Lindsey for the eighteenth time was the fact that no matter how badly this went, it could never go as badly as her 'relationship' with Mikey had: she had slept with Pete that one time after all.

She wondered if Mikey knew about that.

She wondered if Mikey was doing any better than staring longingly at Pete by now: probably not... it was Mikey, after all, who was probably the only person in the goddamn world who was more pathetic than her.

And fuck, because Lindsey had fucking turned around, and fucking caught her staring, and now the teacher was saying something to her in French, and Alicia was absolutely fucked, and Lindsey was fucking giggling in the corner, because she was enjoying how nervous this was making Alicia much more than she ever should.

Fuck this.

Alicia was about four hundred percent done right now, but there wasn't a damn chance in hell that she was going to let Mikey Way fucking win, was there?"

-

"It's like you've forgotten all knowledge of the French language, Alicia, you know, kinda weird that is." Lindsey caught up with her best friend after class, pushing through the corridor to reach her pace: Alicia blushing furiously as she did so, because Lindsey was a million miles out of her league, and Alicia was just a million miles out of her depth.

"Whether I had any knowledge of it in the first place is still rather questionable." Alicia shrugged it off as best she could: whatever she was trying, and Gerard was totally just down the end of that corridor and if she kept walking fast, she could catch up with them, and give Lindsey a slight distraction from ruining her life, even if just for a few moments.

"Sure it is." Lindsey grinned, like she knew something she wasn't supposed to, which really, was unbelievably likely, and in fact, just true, because Mikey Way was a fucking asshole, and a cheater at best: when it came to both bets and relationships.

It was a matter of ten minutes behind the canteen three hours ago, and Mikey had summarised the whole mess and gave Lindsey a packet of jelly beans and a lipstick that was in the bottom of his school bag that had probably belonged to an ex-girlfriend at some point within the past two years, and with that Lindsey had agreed to fuck with Alicia's head a little and give Mikey just enough time to grow the balls to figure out how the fuck he was going to sort this mess with Pete: Lindsey had refused to help him on that one, as he'd been unable to find any more suitable bribes in the bottom of his backpack.

Goddamn, Mikey was going to have to end up actually asking the advice of someone who might even know what the fuck they're doing here, like Gerard or something - god forbid!

"Hey, Alicia, do you like my lipstick? It's new." Lindsey didn't quite give Alicia the luxury of reaching Gerard, before she pounced with her flirting and lipstick and the result of just how far Mikey Way was prepared to go to win a bet.

"Uhh... it's... pretty... I like the colour... I... it's looks great on you, I mean, you always look great, but... greater." Yeah, Alicia was fucking fucked by now, and Lindsey did love the confidence boost it was giving her, and if she could keep convincing Mikey to give her free lipstick for this, then she was more than prepared to keep it up forever.

"You look pretty cute too, Alicia." Lindsey added, but before Alicia could even consider responding with the slightly gay mess of a heart in her chest right now, Gerard had noticed them, and Alicia made a mental note to fucking owe them her life for that.

-

Mikey reckoned that bribing Lindsey was somehow just a little out of line with the rules, but for the most part, he didn't really care all that much either, because damn, he did not like losing, but still he was damn glad that he'd been trusted with Alicia's great big lesbian secret, because no one really tended to tell him anything (and he had the nerve to wonder why). 

Okay, he really wasn't Alicia's first choice, but he was her final choice, and it was rather self explanatory, because he had ended up telling Lindsey, but then again, it was pretty damn obvious that Lindsey already knew, and that she would do anything easy for some free lipstick: maybe Mikey would have to start stealing Gerard’s, which would really be just doing them a favour, as it ensured that they'd have less to hide from their mum, who really wasn't exactly the most understanding person when it came to gender, or well, anything, but whatever.

He had a really good excuse not to talk to anyone about this mess though, because Gerard was out at theatre or something, and their mum was working, and Pete was well Pete, and it was really damn unlikely that Lindsey would be at all inclined to help him, again. Of course, there was always Frank, but the whole thing between Gerard and Frank had really made Mikey and Frank's friendship kind of awkward, because well, Mikey had difficultly looking at the guy without being forced to imagine Frank sleeping with Gerard, which was kind of awkward and well damn uncomfortable, to say the least.

But Gerard was at theatre so Frank would definitely be free, and after all, the two kind of needed to talk, and really, Mikey knew he just should, even if not about Pete, even if it was just menial and unnecessary: Mikey needed to see Frank, perhaps even if just for the hope of maintaining their friendship.

Because if things fucked up with Pete, Mikey was pretty much alone after that: anyway, Frank knew an awful lot about gay things, didn't he? So, surely, Mikey was just doing the right thing here, and that was exactly what he managed to keep convincing himself as he sent Frank a text: something pointless about him just coming over and an excess of emojis just to stop Mikey freaking the fuck out over nothing, because hell, homosexuality was killing him.

Hey, maybe the bible was right, hey, maybe Mikey should just rush over to the nearest church right fucking now and ask God to cleanse his soul, because damn, we all know that shit is a perfect 100% cure for homosexuality and sin.

But Mikey kind of wished it was, because he had no balls (metaphorically, thankfully) when it came to explaining how he felt and as to just what the fuck was going on with him and Pete, because damn, it was so much easier when he was just fucking girls because, well, he could, but whatever, they hated him now, and with good reason.

Mikey Way wasn't a very nice ex-boyfriend, to say the least: he was the kind of boy Taylor Swift would write a song about, or something, which was truly an honour of course, because damn, having a Taylor Swift song written for you, but yeah, Mikey Way was just a little bit of a fuckboy, to say the least.

So maybe he just shouldn't date Pete, for Pete's sake, but before Mikey could fully chicken out of this mess, Frank was at his front door, and he was forced to face up to reality and just spit this mess out before he just ended up punching himself square in the face, because really, he kind of was getting close now.

"Hey, I'm sorry we haven't exactly hung out in a while." Frank was a little awkward as he made his way inside, after all, he wasn't exactly used to just standing in the living room, as opposed to fucking Gerard in it, but whatever, this change was probably for the better, well, in Mikey's mind at the very least.

"It's fine... you and Gerard... and me... and my train wreck of a love life." Mikey sighed out, biting down on his bottom lip as he wondered just what it would take for this mess to clear itself up, because seriously, this bet wasn't at all fair: if he hadn't bribed Lindsey then Alicia would have already won, and damn, he needed to steal some of Gerard’s make up if he was going to keep this up.

"Train wreck of a love life?" Frank raised his eyebrows at that: unable to suppress his instant curiosity, but then again, that was to be nothing but expected in consideration of the situation.

"Yeah, train wreck. It's kind of complicated and you're going to listen before I chicken out again, because I'm killing myself here, and yeah, I... yeah... look, sit down, preferably pick a sofa you and Gerard haven't made out or fucked on, because that's not really something I want to sit in."

Frank sat on the floor.

Mikey grimaced like hell, but sat down opposite him: putting his phone on silent and out of reach on the table: forcing himself to concentrate, and well, just grow some goddamn balls. Like, haven't you people ever heard of growing some goddamn balls?

"Well... Pete and I... that's kind of a thing... sort of not... I don't know... don't even ask me about my sexuality because I don't know, and yes it's ruining my life, because we keep kissing and he's done with me not being sure, but still I don't know what this is and how I feel and I'm fucking up the friendship entirely, and then, the other day, Alicia came over to talk to Gerard about something, but they weren't in... I think they were fucking you at the point, actually..." Mikey narrowed his eyes at Frank, who couldn't help but blush just a little.

"Fucking me? Nice guess, Mikey. Gerard's such a fucking bottom: anyone can tell that." Maybe that wasn't exactly a younger brother appropriate comment, but it certainly gave Frank an excuse to laugh his fucking head off.

"Okay, thanks for the knowledge that you put your dick in Gerard, that's some information I needed, thanks... I... thank you... but okay... Alicia and I got talking, and she ended up telling me the thing she was going to tell Gerard: she just needed advice, okay, but she has very much the same situation as I do with Lindsey, and well... we made some sort of fucked up pact with a forfeit for the person who doesn't grow the balls to make their love life work first... and I kind of bribed Lindsey to help me with some lipstick, but that's not going to work forever and I need, I need some gay advice, Frank."

"Oh, Mikey, I thought you'd never ask." Frank grinned, exaggerating his gestures in the goddamn campest way ever, which was more than just a little amusing, to say the least.

-


	21. pilots

Gerard was curled up, half asleep and leaning into Frank's side on a Thursday afternoon, having headed straight to their boyfriend's house after school, and utterly disregarding the small matter of letting their younger brother into their house or well that fucking English essay they had due tomorrow: it wasn't like it mattered, as they were going to copy it all off the internet anyway, and after all, when teachers gave students essays to do freely at home, then what else were they expecting?

"Mikey's probably going to call me and yell down the phone at me at some time within the next few minutes." Gerard announced, their words muffled against Frank's side, and honestly, the sixteen year old was beginning to suspect that Gerard had actually fallen asleep on him, but thankful for Frank's leg and the way Gerard was leaning against it, they were still wide awake- well... perhaps 'wide' was an overstatement, but let's just say that Gerard was conscious, and Frank was thankful.

"Why?" Frank giggled a little at that, as Gerard sat up slightly, just so Frank could see their face- their fucking cute face. "God, you're beautiful." Frank couldn't help but let the truth slip, because well, Gerard Way did dangerous fucking things to him.

"Shut up." Gerard blushed a wonderfully vibrant shade of scarlet, before turning away a little to check their phone. "He doesn't have a key to our house, I mean, mum doesn't trust him- no that I can blame her, of course, but I'm usually always home and he's going to be locked out now."

"You're going to let your poor brother be locked outside in the cold just so you can cuddle with me?" Frank raised his eyebrows a little at that, but from the blush still vibrant upon Gerard's cheeks, he knew what the answer was.

"Yeah..." Gerard’s voice was somewhat a like to sigh, and really, Frank didn't know if Gerard regretted this at all, and well, perhaps it was for the better if Frank just didn’t care to know. "I love you." Gerard told him, grabbing Frank's hand and pulling it around their shoulders, before leaning back into their boyfriend's side. "I love you an awful lot."

"That's good, because, well, I love you too." Frank's words were uttered with such ease that they could practically mean nothing at all, but with the look in his eyes, there was an undoubtable understanding that they meant nothing but the world. "You should care just a little bit more about Mikey, though, he's not exactly having the best of times, right now."

"What do you mean?" Gerard exclaimed, sitting up immediately, and Frank couldn't help but smile a little at just how fucking cute Gerard was, because damn, there was no fucking way around that fact.

"He's fine- I mean... it's nothing serious, just... social kind of problems... he's scared to tell you, as well, which I find surprising, I mean, you two are somehow closer than close, even if it hardly ever seems so, but he ended up talking to me about it the other day, and I guess it would be kind of horrible of me to just tell you, but, basically, Mikey has certain feelings for a certain person, and it's certainly fucking him up just a little."

"I didn't think Mikey gave much of a damn about relationships and well.. feelings in general, I mean, he cares about me and like his friends, like you and Pete, but otherwise... nah... Mikey doesn't give one single shit." Gerard grabbed their cellphone, and sent Mikey an apologetic text message with the location of the spare key - that neither of them were supposed to know about, but whatever - only to find themself with no response, not even a 'seen' for quite a few minutes.

"It's different this time." Frank told Gerard with a certain degree of conviction that just couldn't help but strike unease inside Gerard, almost as if there was something that Frank was purposely keeping from them.

"How so?" Gerard dared to ask, meeting their boyfriend's gaze as they did so, and finding Frank blushing a little and looking down in a manner that wasn't at all suspicious, of course.

"It's- I can't say, I'm sorry... I just can't say." And it killed Frank inside, because he damn well knew how Gerard felt right now. "It's nothing personal, and it's nothing that relates to you, it's just a secret, and well, Mikey's my friend and he trusted me with this, and I'm trying to stop being so much of an asshole as I was before I started dating you, okay... and I guess this is part of that."

Gerard waited a moment or two, just thinking, processing the newfound information "Okay, but you're not an asshole, Frank, I promise you that."

Frank nodded in response, the two of them jumping a little as Gerard's cellphone vibrated against the coffee table, causing Gerard to lean forward and grab it, their eyes widening a little as they read the text message. It was from Mikey, of course, because well, Gerard only had about four contacts in their phone, and Mikey was the one they'd just texted.

"He's not even at home." Gerard relayed the information Frank, their face contorting into a look of confusion as they did so. "Where the fuck is he then? If he brings back fucking weed again and I get into trouble-"

"Are you his mum, Gerard?" Frank stopped them right there. "Look, he can look after himself, for the most part anyway, just let him be, okay? He's probably just with the person he likes, I reckon it's likely, look I can text him now and ask him just to make you feel better."

Gerard watched with an excess of scrutiny as their boyfriend grabbed his cellphone and began to text Gerard's brother, waiting a few seconds and then reading the response aloud, well, an edited version of the response- summarised, let's go with summarised. "He's at a friend's house, it's fine, there's no weed involved, look, Gerard, you need to stop worrying about him so much."

"He's my brother, it's my job." Gerard shook their head firmly, before leaning back into Frank's lap. "I care about him, of course I do."

"There's a difference between caring and excessive stalking: he's old enough to not get himself killed for a few hours, don't you think?" Frank had a point, but Gerard was stubborn as fuck and they always would be.

"He's fifteen." Gerard protested, scowling a little, and really, just a little unsure as to what they felt inside.

"And I'm sixteen, there's not much difference, Gerard." Frank reminded them, as Gerard let out a sigh, and moved so they were sat between Frank's legs, leaving Frank to spread his legs a little and run his fingers through Gerard's hair as they pressed their head against his chest.

"I'm stressed, whatever, my head fucking hurts, okay, Frankie- I... I don't know... I'm just worried and I just want to know but it's not my business, but he's always the first to know when I have a secret, and, agh... I'm making a big deal out of this, I know, but-"

Frank cut Gerard off right there with a tug on their hair, causing Gerard to look up at their boyfriend. "Stop it, just stop thinking about it, just relax, just forget it - it's nothing, Mikey's fine, you're fine, we're all fine."

"I can't help myself. I care, okay..." Gerard's words came out rather like a sigh, and regret remained present in their words.

"I know you do, you just need to relax sometimes, I mean, you're with me now, I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you or anyone you cared about, you know, I love you, I care, I can care for you, and you can just stop worrying, okay?" And Frank still hadn't a fucking clue as to how he'd gone from punkass skater asshole to this, fucking Romeo, but goddamn worse.

"You're cheesy as fuck." Gerard told him, giggling a little, and blushing like hell as Frank pulled their head back and leaned down to plant a kiss upon their lips.

"Shut up." Frank sighed out, attempting to shrug it off, but failing absolutely spectacularly, but it was only Gerard, it didn't matter at all. "This is a kinda awkward position, I really am struggling to kiss you like this." Frank grumbled, pouting, and leaving Gerard to roll their eyes and move so that they were sat on Frank's lap, facing him.

"This better?" Gerard asked, definitely fucking teasing Frank by now with just how close to his dick they were sat.

"You could say that." Frank mused, grinning a little as he pressed his lips against Gerard's, and Gerard's phone vibrated on the table again, but neither of the two gave one single shit, because it had become rather obvious that those weren't the kind of vibrations they were interested in here anymore.

"Frankie?" Gerard's voice was strained, and high pitched, almost fucking needy and goddamn, Frank was not okay with this, but so incredibly okay with this.

"Mmm... yeah?" Frank disconnected his lips from Gerard's neck for just a moment, looking up at the seventeen year old with nothing but 'fuck me' eyes.

"Please don't give me a hickey, I mean- my mum, and Mikey, and everyone, and it's going to be awkward, I mean they can all see it- it's not you- I... I love hickeys and you, but not if my mum's going to see them." And Gerard was blushing their head off, and yeah, Frank was kind of disappointed, but he wasn't a fucking asshole so he stopped when Gerard asked him to.

"Okay." Frank pulled away for a moment, pausing to think as he glanced Gerard up and down. "What about where people aren't going to see them?"

Gerard blushed, again: they were a fucking bundle of nerves and anxiety, but Frank made that better - one million times better. "I... I... I... where?"

"You could take your shirt off?" Frank suggested, albeit a little awkwardly. "If your mum's staring at your chest then you have a reason to yell at her, okay?"

"I've never taken my shirt off in front of anyone before." Gerard admitted, blushing, as always, and Frank paused for a moment: this really was not a problem he'd ever encountered before, but Gerard Way was worth every problem and every hurdle. "I... I... I'm kind of fat, I guess... I..."

"You're not." Frank told them upfront, sighing out, because the notion was ridiculous. "Hey, we've all got a little bit of a stomach, it doesn't matter- look, do you seriously think I'm going to be focused on how much your stomach sticks out when I could be focusing on giving you millions of hickeys all over your chest?"

Gerard, glanced down, shaking their head.

"But, if you really don't want to, then that's okay." Frank added, leaving Gerard to think for a moment or two, before slowly reaching to pull their black band shirt off: the band logo on the shirt wasn't that important, and therefore didn't need describing, because hey, look, Gerard's fucking shirtless, the band logo that was on their shirt was irrelevant in comparison.

"You're insanely cute." Frank told them before Gerard could chicken out, because fuck, there wasn't a chance in hell that Frank Iero was letting Gerard Way believe that they weren’t the most beautiful motherfucker in this whole damn universe. "I mean it, you're beautiful, and god, I need to kiss the absolute fuck out of you right now."

And with that, they moved so Gerard was lying down against the sofa, Frank hovering above them, and pinning them down a little.

"Frank-" Gerard piped up, stopping him again, yeah, okay, it was driving Frank crazy, but how Gerard felt was far more important than how his dick felt right now. "C-could you take your shirt off too, I mean... I feel kind of awkward just- I-..."

"Okay." Frank smiled, sitting up and pulling off his shirt, and leaving Gerard to have like seventy three orgasms at the sight of Frank Iero shirtless, because well, who wouldn't? "Better?"

"Fucking hell yeah." Gerard exclaimed, as Frank began to press his lips against Gerard's chest, somewhere near their collarbones or something, and holy fuck, this was exactly how Gerard was going to die.

But just imagine if Frank's mum came home right now, weren't they fucking lucky that God had taken pity upon them that day, and allowed them just a few moments of happiness and making out time before disaster inevitability struck and someone inevitability died or something equally as traumatic and heart wrenching.

-

All Mikey had to do now was actually make a move on Pete, and not just wait it out and continue to postpone it and bribe Lindsey for the rest of his life, because even Mikey Way wasn't as ambitiously stubborn as to even consider the possibly of actually living like that.

In a sense, this was kind of like an ultimatum, because Lindsey would definitely make him regret bribing her if he didn't keep it up, so really this was a matter of telling Pete how he felt and winning this bet, and mostly just to ensure that eh didn't end up dead by the end of the day.

But still, Mikey was a nervous wreck, and Frank's gay advice hadn't exactly proved all that helpful if he was honest, but then again, Mikey didn't need advice, all Mikey needed was to grow the fucking balls to actually talk to Pete and just outright tell him how he felt and where they should go from here, because seriously, that was all there was to it.

And somehow, it just sounded a little less daunting when he put it like that.

And maybe that had been exactly what had given him the motivation to actually try and put this plan into action today, because maybe all he'd needed was the motivation and the willpower to just get the fuck on with it, because hey, if Pete was like hell yeah, then they'd probably fuck and that would really make Mikey's week, and if Pete was like hell no, then that was his fault and Mikey would kill for being such a fuckboy, like seriously, 'no homo', who the fuck does he think he is?

Of course, neither of the two scenarios could actually occur yet, as Mikey had utterly neglected to tell Pete, still, and really making his way over to Pete's house after school, after several minutes of contemplation and re-assessment of his life, made a small, but overall, insignificant contribution to the plan of action here, because, hey, anyone could walk across town to where Pete lived, but it took someone with bigger fucking balls than Mikey to actually ring the doorbell and tell Pete just what the hell was going on inside his head.

Mikey underestimated himself, seriously, or at least that was what Gerard had told him to give him a confidence boost or something two years ago, but still, Mikey didn't forget it, because after all, words always meant a lot when they came from the lips of someone who meant the world.

And whatever Pete said would stay with Mikey for absolutely forever, and really, that was exactly why he was just so goddamn terrified, but whatever, he was on Pete's road now anyway, and was now just planning upon acting particularly homosexual in order to set off Pete's gaydar and force him out of his house to investigate this sudden, unexpected, homosexual presence.

Because that would save Mikey ringing the doorbell, and the good ten minutes of his life he would have wasted psyching himself up to do so.

But, of course, Mikey wasn't nearly that lucky, and as he found himself making his way down Pete's driveway, his gaze fell upon a certain emo shitlord sat with his back pressed up against his front door.

"I'm locked out." Pete offered in explanation as he came to acknowledge Mikey's presence. "Forgot my key this morning, and well, I'm stuck here for an hour or so- was actually going to call you, I mean, you have a house right now, and I don't- hey what are you actually doing here?"

"I'm locked out too." And well, Mikey wasn't lying, just avoiding a certain homosexual truth that may or may not have involved a bet with Alicia Simmons that he should have absolutely never made.

"Well that's fucking ridiculous." Pete announced, gesturing for Mikey to sit down beside him. "You're my only hope, Mikeyway, and you've let me down, goddammit!" Pete rolled his eyes and shook his head in mock disappointment as Mikey's cheeks went a horrible shade of red that he just knew he'd be cursed with for the next seven hours or so.

"Sorry." Mikey shrugged it off, pulling his knees up to his chest, and casually dying right there and right then on the spot as Pete leaned into his side.

Okay, Mikey wasn't actually dead, well, not yet, anyway, but that's besides the point.

"It's fine: you can keep me company, how about that? To make up for it, because it's totally your fault that I forgot my house key this morning." Well, Pete wasn't lying either, as the emo fuckboy found himself dedicating a questionable amount of time in the morning just lying in bed and thinking about Mikey, and then stalking Mikey's instagram, and accidentally liking at least one photo before declaring himself officially dead in consequence and then eating his breakfast in the most deceased manner he could muster - the rates of success often varied.

"And why's that?" Mikey dared to ask, which was his biggest fucking mistake already, because there was some things regarding Pete Wentz's personal life that you just didn't want to know.

Pete shrugged, blushing far more than he'd care to admit. "You're pretty important, I guess, I mean, you're a distraction, you're cute, you're a distraction and that made me forget my keys because I remember how cute you were!"

Mikey shook his head at just about the least believable lie he'd ever heard- okay there was that one time that Gerard had assured their mother that they were straight, but, apart from that. "Nice try, Wentz, nice flattery too, you always did know how to suck up to people, didn't you?"

"There are much better things I could suck, if I'm honest." And Mikey nearly choked, and not in the way that Pete would have liked, because goddamn, Pete Wentz had absolutely no chill, and Mikey Way had declared himself officially dead at least sixteen times in the past hour, and it was all Pete Wentz's fucking fault.

"Like popsicles. I like popsicles." He added, and it was a rather delayed response if he was honest, but whatever, Pete had tried, and Pete had failed spectacularly. Noticing his absolute failure, he turned to Mikey and met his gaze, deadly fucking serious, before uttering a sincere, "and cock."

And make that seventeen times, because Pete Wentz was just about to be officially declared as a health hazard at this rate.

"No, seriously, I would like to suck a dick right now- it's kind of sad you can't suck yourself off, because well, I think that'd be pretty cool." Pete mused, totally cool and collected and totally not like he was talking to the guy he liked about sucking dick.

Mikey was not so cool, to say the least. "You can get an operation... can't you?" He stuttered out: his cheeks hot and flustered, yet he was determined to keep himself together, because hey, he knew Lindsey was going to laugh at him and then stab him through the chest if he didn't.

"Oh, yeah that thing when they remove your ribs, but it'd be a little awkward, like hey, yeah doctor, I'd like the suck my own dick operation." Pete laughed his fucking head off as Mikey died again and shook his head firmly. "I swear you could start a porno like that- hey, I'm going to sell that idea to porn, you know? I'm quite literally going to be big dick rich."

"Why am I friends with you?" Mikey found himself asking aloud, and well, thankfully Pete didn't seem to mind at all.

"Because I'm cute, and you're cute - we have that in common." And Pete killed Mikey for the eighteenth time that day. "No, seriously, stop blushing and just laughing it off, you're making it ridiculous hard, Mikey- no, not like that, but I think you're cute, like for real."

"T-thank you..." Mikey stuttered out, missing the point entirely and Pete really didn't know what to do with himself anymore, and eventually just decided upon a different approach.

"Look- for fuck's sake, Mikey..." Pete trailed off, shaking his head, and leaving Mikey to panic as he came to the instant conclusion that he'd messed up somehow, and really, that was nothing but far from the case. "So, if I can't suck myself off... what can I suck? Who can I suck off?" And with the eye contact and indiscreet crotch glance, Pete reckoned that he made it pretty damn obvious as to what he was suggesting here.

"Pete..." Mikey sighed out, wondering just whether he was reading this wrong or not, because hell, Pete was just a flirtatious asshole with everybody, wasn't he? "We need to talk, okay... and we're alone and it's cold and we've got nothing better to do and I'm going to be killed if we don't, so please, it would be appreciated if we could just figure this mess the fuck out."

"What?" Pete's eyes widened a little at first: beyond confused, and Mikey was just about to smash his head through the door at this rate. "What have I done?"

"It's not- oh Jesus Christ, I need the balls for this- I don't have the balls for this, but basically there's this bet that I made with Alicia and it's going to kill me-"

"Oh... so you're back together then? Why the fuck didn't you tell me- this is about me sleeping with her that one time, isn't it? Oh, come on, Mikey-" Pete jumped to such a wrong conclusion that he found himself sealed in a dimension of wrong and immoral things, such as, Nash Grier, mpreg, and waycest.

"It's not like that!" Mikey protested, his cheeks flushing a shade of red that really didn't aid his case in the slightest. "You've got it so wrong." And Mikey was almost laughing at this point, well internally, perhaps, because the truth lay in nothing but the opposite of what Pete had just accused him of.

"Have I now?" Pete was unconvinced, rolling his eyes as he pulled away from Mikey. "You should have just told me, you know, I'm just pissed off that you didn't tell me- there's nothing else, it's nothing else, I'd just appreciate it if you could actually value my existence as your best friend, for once."

"But Pete-" Mikey's words froze in his throat as he struggled to meet Pete's gaze, because he was absolutely beyond screwed right now and Lindsey would have the time of her life with this, because there was nothing quite as amusing as the prospect of Mikey's death.

"Mikey, you don't- just don't try to explain, don't try to make this better for yourself, and if I'm honest, I just don't want to hear about your sexbet with Alicia, because, you know what, been there, done that, and it wasn't exactly good enough for me to justify spending twenty dollars on some shitty ass t-shirt."

"I don't like Alicia like that anymore, come on, look, I don't-" Pete remained skeptical, and Mikey remained dead, as he wondered whether he should even try anymore, because Pete had made it quite fucking clear that there was absolutely 'nothing else' to them and to this, because this was just a heterosexual train wreck, and Mikey felt like he'd been thrown back into the depths of the closet, and maybe this would be a crush that would pass, or maybe he'd just have to spend the rest of his life bribing Lindsey Ballato not to tell anyone of his great failure and fuck up.

Because, hey, Mikey couldn't face embarrassment, and especially not now, and especially not in front of Pete, who somehow actually gave something vaguely resembling a damn about him, maybe he should just leave right now and go cry himself to sleep or something, and then just try his best to forgot about this forever, or just simply lock himself in his bedroom until he died from starvation or got over Pete Wentz, but hey, the former seemed all the more likely, if Mikey was honest.

"Mikey, just... it's fine, honestly, you've got a girlfriend again, I'm forever alone, whatever, don't just fucking go rub it in my face."

And that was exactly how Mikey knew he was dead, and for real this time, for real, and it wasn't nearly as fun as he'd expected, especially when his heart hurt like this, and he felt like dying all over again whenever he even happened to make eye contact with the boy sitting beside him, encased in a tragically heterosexual silence.

-


	22. The Voice Of No Homo

To say that Mikey was the only one of the two that was entirely mindfucked by their situation was a lie, and Pete Wentz was the living proof of it.

Pete wasn't the sentimental type, and he most certainly wasn't the wallowing in his own pity type, but still, that seemed to have changed, but then again, Pete had doubted that Mikey was his type, and from the feeling in his heart, he most definitely was.

Of course, it couldn't just be so easy as for Pete to just kiss Mikey and tell him how he felt or something, because it was almost as if everything inside Pete's head was determined to ensure that he was never happy with Mikey: an over reactive anxiety of sorts, almost like an allergic reaction to cute boys.

Goddamn it, if Pete was allergic to Mikey Way, then he knew that in a heartbeat he'd still be more than happy to bend that boy over in instants, but, of course, it was just chemicals and worries, and Pete wasn't entirely sure what the deterring thoughts in his head were even trying to achieve here.

Perhaps it was the voice of God in his head, and that was why there was such a strong emphasis on 'no homo', but the voice hadn't particularly said all that much the other day when Pete had lied to his parents about having study group to get out of going to church- hey, perhaps it was Satan, or maybe if Pete didn't stop lying to his parents, and well everyone, he was going to end up being Satan.

He kind of felt like Satan right now. Especially in regards to Mikey's upset and disappointment the last time they met: the time Mikey told him that him and Alicia had gotten back together, of course, Mikey had denied it, or at least tried to, but even now, Pete wasn't entirely sure what to believe, because things were confusing, to say the least, when your whole head was working against you.

But deep down, Pete kind of just knew: he knew that Mikey liked him - there'd been enough about that to ensure that anyone with any sign of sentience at all could pick up on it, and Pete kind of knew that he liked Mikey back.

But he just wasn't sure about whether he was ready to let this go and fuck it up so bad, because now Mikey seemed almost sure of himself, and that scared Pete. Whereas when Mikey was uncertain and awkward, it was easy for Pete just to be the goddamn biggest flirt in existence and with very few repercussions, but something had changed in Mikey, and that was obvious - it just wasn't obvious as to what.

Pete didn't quite know what he wanted at all, but perhaps a cure for this headache was his best shot, and perhaps Bob Bryar was exactly the worst person to call for that, and perhaps he should stop himself right now, because things would only get harder (and not in the way Pete would want) when he ended up letting the intoxication getting the better of him, and texted Mikey at four in the morning asking about his dick and how Pete's heart did that stupid fluttery thing every time he walked past.

Pete thought about Mikey's dick a lot.

It was kind of unsettling, but it was okay, because no one needed to know, but of course, he was absolutely fucking fucked if someone ever discovered how to read minds- although, Pete highly doubted that their first priority would be the mind of a sexually frustrated teenage boy, as opposed, to like important political figures, and mass murderers.

Pete knew though that if Mikey ever figured out how to read minds, that he would most certainly be Mikey's first priority, besides maybe Gerard, because there was that one time with all that milk and the bathtub that Mikey wasn't quite sure if had been the concoction of some fucked up dream or not.

Pete wondered if he was the important political figure to Mikey, or the mass murderer.

Pete wondered if there was any difference at all.

And laughed at his absolutely hilarious, yet slightly offensive sense of humour in return, before coming straight back to his state of homosexual crisis... perhaps 'straight' wasn't exactly the best word to use', because Pete Wentz was many things, but he most certainly was not 'straight'.

And let's say that Mikey Way was living proof of that.

Also his search history, but Pete doubted whether his search history was alive, and he immediately felt sorry for it if it was.

Pete knew he could solve this mess, and quite easily so: it would involve nothing more than the cellphone beside him, and his fingers to text a message, but of course, the 'voice of no homo' in Pete's head was now demanding that chopped his fingers off to prevent any homosexual text messaging- of course, Pete could always call Mikey - it'd be worse, but it'd be better, and dear god, Pete wasn't sure what the fuck was going on in his head right now.

Perhaps he should have called Bob Bryar, perhaps the intoxicated repercussions wouldn't be that bad, or perhaps he could just throw his cellphone into a lake and that would solve all of his problems, wouldn't it?

Or perhaps not.

Maybe all Pete needed to do was get himself some form of sanity, but well, he'd definitely have to go to Craigslist for that, and really wasn't in the mood to deal with pedophiles right now.

Not that Pete had moods in which he particularly enjoyed the company of pedophi- okay... Pete needed a drink, and preferably something with a high alcoholic content, and really, he'd never been quite more grateful of the church that was holding Pete's parents' attention for the next couple of hours.

He felt kind of guilty, so Pete said a quick 'amen', before downing a bottle of wine, and only managing about a third of it, before he found himself gagging at the taste, and smashed the bottle against the floor, leaving the cupboard open, and making his way to the back garden to let the dog in so she could be a suitable target for blame, because hey, that fucking dog could break one million fucking bottles and she'd never get grounded, yet all Pete had to do was fuck up once and he was done for.

Pete considered just how different his life would have been if he'd been born as his pet dog and not as himself: perhaps then his name would be Pete Woofz, or perhaps that was a terrible pun, and perhaps he was absolutely fucking insane right now, and his dog, who was actually called Janice, not Pete Woofz, not that Janice was the kind of name that sane people gave to a dachshund either, but whatever, this was far from the point, because Janice was now licking wine up from the kitchen floor, and Pete wasn't entirely sure as to whether wine was toxic to dogs, but just to be safe, he found himself awkwardly herding her into the living room, and continuing to sit on the sofa and reassess his life with a dashed licking his ankle, because that, of course, improved his situation significantly.

Pete decided to text Mikey, because that was most certainly better than this madness, and no matter, how much he pushed her away, Janice seemed absolutely determined to devour his ankle, and perhaps that was just something that Pete was going to have to accept and deal with.

Trying to produce a sufficiently heterosexual and not at all awkward text message was kind of hard when your leg was being molested by a small, hyperactive dashed, but still, Pete tried, even if the best he could come up with was quite possibly a nominee for most awkward text message of the year, not winner, because there was that one time when Mikey had accidentally texted Gerard something had been meant for Alicia, and well, this was when they were dating, and you can finally in blanks.

'hey mikeyway help me im being attacked by a drunk dog'

And then a dog emoji and a bottle of wine emoji, and fuck- a heart that he had really not meant to send, but there was little he could do about it now, and he could very easily pass it off as an expression of Janice's love for alcohol, because seriously, Pete was beginning to suspect that this dog was severely drunk by now.

Like okay, it had only had a few licks of wine on the floor, but that was probably a lot to a very small, very hyperactive dog, and Pete was still confused as to just why the hell he was all so obsessed with the level of intoxication in his dog, like seriously, at this rate, he was going to end up breathalysing her in a minute.

But Mikey texted him back before he could google how to breathalyse a dog, and perhaps that was for the better, and at the very least, Janice had stopped devouring his ankle, at least for now, anyway.

'uhh? hey im not even gonna ask but hi, im in church and it sucks balls.'

Pete seriously considered asking Mikey if he could ask Pete's parents what to do about their very drunk dog, but of course, that would reveal that there was never any study group, and that was like Pete's number one excuse for everything, and he wasn't quite prepared to ruin that in concern for the safety of a slightly intoxicated dachshund.

'im supposed to be there but im at study group right now'

Winky face - not a sexual winky face, but a 'you know what I mean' winky face, but really, with how much of a failure Pete was being right now, there wasn't all that much difference.

Pete was kind of just disappointed, because there was no way in hell that his dog should be allowed to be drunk, while he was sober, for the most part anyway- perhaps just a little tipsy, but like he could walk, so it was fine.

'why's your dog at study group? and why the fuck is your dog drunk?'

Mikey Way: asking the important questions, and well, Pete wasn't even sure how to explain himself here, but at the very least, he had to thank Janice for providing a suitable topic of conversation as opposed to the very blatant homosexual tendencies the two of them shared- not Janice, but- hey, there's nothing to say that Janice couldn't like girl dogs- but Pete knew he should probably worry about his own life and not the one of his dog - drunk, or gay, or not.

'you got me. i was supposed to be drunk but Janice had other ideas'

Pete wondered just how easily he could slip a quick 'I love you lots can I have your adopted babies?' into their conversation, and in turn, seriously considered confiscating his cellphone... from himself, like seriously, throwing it into a lake seemed like a great idea right now: he wondered if he could blame that on Janice too.

'Janice? your fucking dog is called Janice?'

Of course, this was the most important thing right now, but Pete was more than happy for Mikey to pick up on that rather than anything remotely homosexual, but he'd spoken too late, as Mikey texted him again.

'Gerard just sent me a text they meant for Frank. I'm scarred and they are kind of dead right now'

Goddamn Gerard Way, bringing homosexuality back into Mikey's life, and consequently, Pete's, and just fuck it, because there was no hope for simple conversation about Janice anymore, and now Pete was just about to get his life ruined.

'Haha'

And some sort of weird combination of emojis that Pete had put entirely too much thought into.

'I'm not back with Alicia... seriously Pete'

And fuck, Pete was fucked, and not in the way he'd prefer, because this was killing him: absolutely killing him.

'I know. I got scared.'

And it was pathetic: pathetically homosexual, but Pete didn't care, as he powered down his phone before Mikey could even fathom responding. He stood up, stretching a little as he held his phone tight in his hand and considered the location of the nearest lake or just general sufficient body of water to throw it into.

Needless, to say, Pete wasn't exactly having the best of times right now, but at least he wasn't Mikey: sat in the pews across town, and having some sort of homosexual meltdown as Pete failed to respond.

Really, the only person having a good time right now was Janice, who looked very happy to just roll around on the carpet and bark almost fucking melodically, and well, if there was a reason not to get your dog drunk, this was it.

-

Mikey wasn't the only one of the two ways who had ruined their life with some stupid pact type thing, of course, Gerard's was worlds away from the tell Pete that you like him bullshit that Mikey was finding ridiculously hard, but whatever he was only fifteen, and he was a fuckboy at heart so he deserved some slack for that perhaps.

Gerard, however, was taxed with finding someone gullible enough to consider going on a date with Gabe Saporta, and really they'd spent an awful lot of time procrastinating and wasting it away, until there were only a couple of days left until they met again, and Gerard came to very quickly conclude that they were absolutely fucked.

They hadn't even a clue as to where they were supposed to start and how on earth they were even supposed to do this on Gabe's behalf, like Gerard barely knew any gay guys other than their boyfriend, and Frank Iero was not something Gerard would ever give up - especially not for Gabe Saporta.

But of course, there was a way out of everything, and Gerard had nothing other to thank than Mikey's relentless texting throughout the church sermon, and the fact that mum had confiscated his cellphone, and later abandoned it for Gerard to snatch up from the side and rivet through their brother's contacts, but the only applicable victim was Pete Wentz, and Gerard doubted that Mikey would ever forgive them if they fucked that up, well even further than Pete and Mikey's 'relationship' already was.

But then, Gerard stumbled upon a certain app that they would never wished to have seen in their brother's phone, but still, it kind of saved their skin right now, so perhaps they'd let it slide, just this once.

And really, this was fucking ridiculously easy because never did Gabe Saporta have to know that Gerard Way had made a Grindr account for him, and never did the 'lucky' victim of Gabe's little 'love game' have to know that the account wasn't made by Gabe himself.

In fact, Gerard could just send this asshole to Gabe's house after texting Gabe beforehand, and then it'd all be fucking simple and no one would have a fucking clue what had happened, and then that Gabe and his newfound fuckboy had contact, Gerard could safely delete Grindr before their mum, or god forbid, their brother found it.

Gerard reckoned that Mikey was just incredibly lucky with the fact that Mrs Way wasn't entirely up to date with gay dating apps, and that they were extremely lucky that Mikey didn't seem to have a clue when it came to suitable phone security, because he'd had the same passcode for everything since he was seven, and holy fuck, Gerard could basically destroy Mikey's life, but Gerard decided that they weren't a psychopath and restrained from doing so as they made their way up to their room and set up a Grindr account for Gabe fucking Saporta.

They stole some stupid selfie from Gabe's instagram - the one with the most likes, and the one that Gabe bragged about on a regular basis, and filled in some basic information about him, which was kind of hard, because well, Gerard didn't entirely know all that much regarding Gabe's interests, other than the fact that he was a fucking asshole, but whatever, they stole his instagram bio and a couple of facebook statuses instead, and hoped for the best.

And somehow, the gay god seemed to have seen pity upon Gerard's mismatched homosexual endeavours, and gave them the gift of several Grindr notifications within the few minutes it had taken them to make coffee, and well, from the surprisingly overwhelming response, Gerard nearly spilled their coffee all over their cellphone and really that wouldn't have been the best of ideas at all.

Thankfully, the coffee made its way to the table without any accidents, and Gerard opened the app again to see a couple of interactions, and a message from... a forty five year old... okay then, no thanks. Gerard gave up for a moment there, before casually clicking favourite on a couple of vaguely attractive looking guys who lived in a somewhat close proximity, until, the holy grail of slightly catfished gay online dating appeared in the form of a message from an actually cute seventeen year old who actually lived in this fucking town who went by the name of William fucking Beckett... well... without the 'fucking' bit, but, whatever, Gerard messaged him back, and that was what was important here.

Something about this felt innately kind of wrong, because well, this guy thought Gerard was Gabe, but like, he didn't have to know, and he seemed to like Gabe, and soon enough he would meet Gabe in real life, and soon enough Gerard would be free from that asshole, and William fucking Beckett would be hopefully in love with him.

And Gerard couldn't help feel like some sort of gay fairy godmother like this.

They texted Gabe some sort of vague brief update regarding the 'victim' Gerard had acquired for Gabe, and really, William didn't exactly deserve to be referred to as a victim but he'd just told Gerard that he didn't like Star Wars, so Gerard was starting to reconsider.

Gabe texted Gerard back with a slight element of shock: not ever having actually expected Gerard to follow through with this stupid idea that he'd kind of come up with on a whim, but there was no way that Gabe was taking this back now.

Anyway, William was kind of sat there unable to believe his luck, because there wasn't a question about the fact that William Beckett found Gabe Saporta just more than a little attractive, and anyway, he didn't have to know of Gerard's existence at all, did he?

And as Gerard sent Gabe William's picture, and the asshole had replied with a very simple and very Gabe 'yes pls' and some sort of fucked combination of emojis, they knew that somehow, just somehow this was going to work out.

-

As time progressed, Alicia was only getting worse when it came to staring hopelessly at Lindsey Ballato at every opportunity, and even without being bribed by Mikey, Lindsey would have most certainly caught on by now, because seriously, she was ridiculously bad at this, but then again, she didn't exactly have all that homosexual experience, which was something that Lindsey was of course very happy to provide, but fuck Mikey Way and this fucking bribe and all the make up that he was most definitely stealing from Gerard now.

Lindsey wondered if she even gave a damn anymore, because Gerard had gone to see Frank at lunchtime, which was really some sort of phenomenal improvement in the fact that Frank was actually acknowledging their relationship in front of people, or of course, as Lindsey suspected, they could just be meeting and making out in a toilet stall, but whatever made them happy, fuck it, it wasn't Lindsey's business at all.

But what was Lindsey's business was the fact that she had now been left alone with Alicia, who was making no secret about the fact that she was staring at her as the two sat together outside on one of the picnic tables.

Lindsey took a drink from her can of coke, and couldn't help but wish that it was a can of something stronger and much, much more alcoholic, as she turned to face Alicia, catching her staring and causing her to blush like an idiot again, and really Lindsey'd had enough of this shitty ass little game going on here, because she was seventeen, not seven, and Alicia was supposed to be sixteen, not six, and well, Mikey, regardless of age, he was most definitely just a five year old through and through.

But whatever, fuck the bets, because Lindsey was fucking with the emotions of people she cared about now, and as the past two weeks or so had passed, she'd began to discover that maybe the thing between Alicia and her could be somewhat mutual, because hey, Alicia was pretty: there was no question about that, but she was a typical straight girl, or well, bi girl, and Lindsey had been there a million times before, and really doubted that she could make the effort again.

But Alicia was different: of course she was, she was cute, and smiling awkwardly at the sandwich she'd barely nibbled at, and things felt kind of awkward and empty with these feelings and a lack of Gerard to gush over Frank as some sort of distraction.

Lindsey wondered how they could possibly end up, and whether they'd be more like Gerard and Frank or Mikey and Alicia.

Lindsey wondered if Alicia was actually just experimenting here, and if this was really just a phase, despite how fucking hypocritical that seemed, but, she was scared, because Alicia was absolutely the opposite of a stereotypical lesbian, and well, Lindsey didn't want to get fucked over, and Lindsey didn't want to fuck up their friendship, and well, Alicia deserved the friendship of her and Gerard, because it made a world of difference from the misogynistic shit she'd put up with in the company of Mikey, Pete, and a couple of friends nobody spoke much to anymore.

This silence was killing the both of them, though, and Lindsey knew that for sure, and Lindsey knew that from the awkward look in Alicia’s eyes, that it was most certainly her job to fix it: regardless of whether she wanted to or not.

"It was a stupid idea, you know? I wouldn't expect such a stupid idea from you, Gerard, yeah, I mean the whole like Frank thing, but-... I thought you had some common sense, Alicia." And perhaps Lindsey's words had come out a little harsher than she'd intended, but fuck it, because Alicia needed to sort her life the fuck out right now, and Lindsey was helping her with that - wasn't she?

"What are you talking about?" Alicia's cheeks flushed a horrible, yet expected shade of red as she spoke, and well, Lindsey found herself reconsidering this entirely, but fuck it, fucking fuck it, because if they got to the point where they were skipping Geography to make out in the toilets then this would most certainly be the best day of Lindsey's fucking life.

"Mikey-"

"Oh god no... that rumour that I'm dating him again- no, no, I promise you that's not true, I'm not that stupid." Alicia's eyes almost widened in shock at that one, and really, that was not what Lindsey was getting at here at all.

"I was thinking about something else here, but... please tell me that rumour has no origin point with any worth, because-"

"No, it doesn't... I haven't even spoken to Mikey in forever." Alicia lied right there, and well, if you shouldn't do something, it was lying to Lindsey Ballato, especially when she secretly knew exactly what was happening right now.

"How did you from some sort of stupid pact with him without talking to him then?" And it was harsh, Lindsey knew it, and Alicia was having several heart attacks all at once.

"What- how- I- I...?"

"He came and tried to bribe me to get more time to tell Pete that he liked him, so he's been paying me in random shit not to kiss you for the past few weeks, and it's kind of getting tiring, because you're obvious as fuck, and cute as fuck, and I hate knowing that I'm fucking with your emotions, and for Mikey... Jesus Christ, but then again, when I agreed to it, I thought you were going to just tell me within the next few days, but apparently not... so how about this? Just kiss me or something and then you get to ruin Mikey's life in revenge."

"I...I..." Alicia wasn't prepared for this at all, and it was well, more than fucking evident in every word she uttered. "Is this just to spite Mikey... or... do you actually want to kiss me like because I'm me, because I don't- I don't want to be a bitch about this, I like you, and I'm finding it very hard to do this whole gay thing... I mean, I'm not used to it, and I don't know what the hell's going on in my head."

"I'd say that you're bi, not gay: that's liking two genders, by the way, so like... you get it? But... hey I like you, Alicia: I'm not the one fucking around with stupid love games, okay? It's up to you how this goes from here, but I'm not going to allow this to fuck up this friendship group we have here, because I don't want you going back to fucking Mikey ever... he's an asshole... surely you know that, Alicia?"

And in response, Alicia reached under the picnic table, and held Lindsey's hand, squeezing it tight, and nodding like an idiot.

And seriously, fuck school, because if they'd been anywhere else right then, there'd be a whole load more making out going on, for sure.

-


	23. Bert McCracken Gets Thrown Into A Wall

Frank had done this at least a million times in his life, but never ever did it seem to have any kind of hope of ever getting easier.

He'd call his alarm clock his arch nemesis, or something, and his alarmed cock: a victim of it and morning fucking wood.

At least his mum didn't find it necessary to come into his bedroom and wake him up personally anymore, because well, the older he got, the more awkward it was, and Frank was mainly talking about his dick here.

Waking up was hell, and today was no exception, and it took Frank at least ten minutes to even gather the motivation to open his eyelids. Of course God couldn't take enough pity upon him as to just let him fall back to sleep and continue to sleep through the rest of hell, and perhaps even the rest of his life.

He did eventually get out of bed, and as expected, he did absolutely hate it: his room was too cold, but that hoodie on the floor was entirely too far away, and Frank was probably going to cause a gas leak if he even tried to turn up the heating. Fucking hell, the window was even closed, and Frank was beginning to suspect that there were little goblins sat in the corner of his bedroom with no purpose to their existence other than to blow icy cold air at a poor teenage boy every morning.

That was not the kind of blowing Frank was interested in, to say the least. And on that train of thought, Frank texted Gerard: a simple good morning and a kiss or something, because it was fucking cute and he knew it'd make Gerard blush like the fucking dork they were.

And at some point between texting Gerard and making his way downstairs, Frank had gotten dressed, and had indeed eventually moved enough to reach the hoodie on the floor, which was a wonderful kind of progress that he should be very proud of, of course.

Mrs Iero had been awake more than twice as long as Frank had, and she offered her son a smile as he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. "Morning, Frankie. You get enough beauty sleep?"

He rolled his eyes at his mother, because Frank did not need beauty sleep, being beautiful as fuck already, as everyone knew, and he could easily convince Gerard into agreeing with him about: it was kind of trivial and ridiculous, but he found himself nodding at his mother regardless: just to make her happy or something, because Frank was a good son, or something.

He made his way out of the house five minutes later with a piece of toast only half its way down his throat.

And only now had Gerard actually texted Frank back: something cute that made very little sense and served more to make Frank smile than anything else.

Frank texted them back with something equally as sappy, and a series of stupid heart emojis that he'd be painfully embarrassed to ever admit to the use of, but whatever, it was Gerard, and with Gerard, everything was different.

Frank reckoned it was a good kind of different, though, and his head was bombarded with the thoughts of a good kind of different as he made his way to school, and almost far too eagerly too, because maybe he was just a little too eager to see Gerard again, because maybe he loved them far more than he'd ever care to admit.

Frank Iero wasn't a sappy romantic, but he was. It was different: the good kind of different, and Frank liked it as much as he liked Gerard, and well, he was making an effort to get to school on time to see them here, so you could say that Frank liked Gerard an awful lot.

Their relationship wasn't 'official', but it was highly speculated throughout the various rumours and gossip that ran rampant through the school, and that was nothing more than a repercussion of Frank's rather relaxed efforts to hide the way he looked at Gerard every time they walked past, or the way he actually hung out with the guy, or the way they disappeared to go to the toilets together for like twenty minutes, but they were just rumours, and rumours were nothing more than easy to deny.

It was lying, and both Frank and Gerard were experts, and perhaps that skill was never needed more than it was under the watchful eyes of high school gossips, because god no, imagine Frank Iero and Gerard Way dating- fucking hell, imagine that, imagine how much of nobody's business it was, but seriously fucking imagine it.

Frank hated school, and he hated the way his friends- some of the people he hung out with began to suspect that this was something more than just a casual friendship, because this was clichéd as fuck, and Frank Iero was the cool guy who could skateboard and play guitar, hell, he was practically the skater boy from Avril Lavigne's hit single, and Gerard Way was, well, to put it crudely, and as people often did: 'the art fag'.

Frank fucking hated everyone that called Gerard that, and it was proven as a certain fucking asshole fell into step with him as he approached the school gate.

"You don't look particularly happy to see me, Iero." The guy commented all too casually, his laughter amplified with the affects of the pills he'd taken minutes before spotting Frank outside school.

"Maybe I'm not." Frank shrugged off a casual comment in response, because he really wasn't, but the guy would never actually know, and it was proven as he continued to laugh along in response, and leaving Frank to roll his eyes once again.

"Anyway, you want to take some pills with me in the bathroom before French, because well, I think that would make it a little more interesting: a little less 'hon hon mi baguette', and a little more 'hon hon mi baked'."

"Bert, that was the most tragic pun I have ever had the misfortunate of experiencing." It was early in the morning, and yes, Frank Iero was going to be blunt as hell because the guy was already high enough just to continue to laugh along with anything he said whatsoever.

"Your mum is the most tragic thing I've ever had the misfortunate of experiencing." He countered, and Frank reckoned that such a pathetic response didn't even deserve a reply. "Anyway, how's your little art fag boyfriend?"

Frank exhaled with just a little too much irritation at the use of the word 'fag', and at the use of the word 'boy': Gerard was neither of those things. "Gerard's not my boyfriend." And this was wonderful, because technically, Frank wasn't even lying, not that he'd really have much of a problem when it came to lying to Bert McCracken.

Frank did also kind of want to mention that one time Bert had relentlessly hit on Gerard in a miniskirt when he didn't know who they really were, but that served as the motivation to keep Frank going until he actually saw Gerard that day.

"Whatever you say, fag." Bert's tone was light-hearted, almost as if he was joking, but needless to say, Frank did not find it funny at all.

"You seriously going to call me that?" Frank snapped, turning to Bert and stopping him in the corridor.

"You seriously going to keep that art fag around as your little pet forever? It's getting tiring, Frankie." Bert laughed again, and Frank continued stubbornly in his solid belief that it was not funny. 

"You're going to want to shut up right fucking now, Bert." Frank's temper was slowly dissolving around him, and well, as Bert had said, he had French first, and he couldn't imagine how badly that was going to go at all.

"Am I? Faggot-" Bert finished that sentence slammed against the corridor wall with an resonating thud, grabbing the attention of everyone in the vicinity as something in Bert's body made a horrible cracking sound and he tore a quick and painful 'fuck' from his lips.

"I'm not a fucking faggot." Frank screamed at him now, his words echoing throughout the hallway: all eyes upon the two of them: he knew people were going to be talking about this forever, but Frank was just thankful to be the guy slamming the guy against the wall, and not the guy with a broken something here.

Frank turned away with a sigh, pushing his way through the crowd of mainly younger students who had now gathered around Bert on the floor: several asking if he was dead, and Frank really wanted to respond with an 'I wish', but he reckoned he wasn't a salt in the wound kind of guy, and anyway, he'd caught Gerard's gaze across the sea of people.

Gerard was stood with Alicia and Lindsey by their lockers, their usual spot, and from the look on their faces, Frank knew they'd witnessed it all. Alicia looked kind of taken a back, shocked really, and Lindsey looked almost impressed, which was weird, but then again, people didn't exactly like Bert McCracken, but, of course, the expression upon Gerard's face had to be entirely unreadable.

"What the fuck was that?" Lindsey was the first to speak as Frank reached the three of them: her eyes widening as she glanced between Frank and Gerard and then Alicia, who was still fucking staring at Bert and the somewhat diminishing crowd of people around him.

"He called me a faggot." Frank shrugged it off, avoiding Gerard's gaze, because if Frank knew anything it was that Gerard was judging him for this, and he didn't quite like this kind of scrutiny from someone he cared about quite as much as this.

"Yeah, we got that." Alicia added, finally tearing his gaze away from Bert, and looking Frank in the eye. "You slammed him against that wall pretty hard, you know?"

"I know..." Frank trailed off, shrugging a little.

"You reckon he deserved it-" Alicia added, only to be cut off by Lindsey.

"Of course, he fucking deserved it, that's the biggest fucking asshole in this entire school."

"So you think it's fine that Frank just lashed out like that?" Alicia continued, raising her eyebrows a little.

"No, but it's Frank I'm worried about, not Bert." Lindsey met Frank's gaze as she spoke. "He's going to hate you for that, he's going to get revenge on you for that, and for just one little homophobic slur, that's not worth it, because okay, Bert isn't the kind of guy who's going to tell the school nurse exactly who did it to him, but he is going to ensure he gets an apology out of you, regardless."

"He called Gerard a faggot too- I... I... I couldn't, I don't know... I lost it or something." Frank blushed a little, chancing a glance in Gerard's direction, but of course, their expression remained as nothing but oddly vacant.

"Alright then Romeo, you did it to protect your lover's honour, fucking congratulations, he's going to go after Gerard too." And too say the least, Lindsey really would have preferred it if they could have just gone to fucking French without this drama.

"I'm not going to let him: I'll fucking break every fucking bone in his fucking body, I-"

"Shut the fuck up, Frank." Gerard spoke up for the first time, rolling their eyes at their boyfriend, grabbing Frank by the wrist and turning to their friends. "Look, give us a moment, okay?" And with that, Frank found himself dragged into the toilets by a slightly pissed off and unfairly beautiful seventeen year old.

"That was all kinds of stupid, Frank." Gerard was blunt about it, and Frank just found himself nodding as Gerard grabbed him by the hand, pulling him into a cubicle. "All kinds of hot, too." Gerard admitted, locking the cubicle door behind them and sinking to their knees before Frank could even quite process what was happening.

"Fuck-" Frank choked out, smirking to himself in realisation that his morning fantasy had somewhat come true: perhaps he should throw people against walls more often if he got this kind of reward for his efforts. "You're beautiful, fucking hell-" Frank moaned out as Gerard wrapped their lips around Frank's dick, smiling a little as the sixteen year old threw his head back against the cubicle wall in something like pleasure, something like utter disbelief.

"Don't you dare fucking stop, oh my god." Frank added, rolling his eyes at Gerard, wrapping his hands in their hair and forcing them down, getting their mouth filthy and fucking full.

Gerard and Frank returned from the toilets five minutes later: dishevelled and awkward, and both Alicia and Lindsey knew exactly what had gone on.

-

Mikey Way didn't particularly make much of a habit of talking to Gerard at school, because like, Gerard was a fucking nerd and Mikey had some sort of respect for his 'street cred' or something, but whatever, that was besides the point.

Mikey found himself entirely too nervous about just speaking to Gerard, but it was more for the content of the conversation they might have and not for the conversation itself, so perhaps Mikey could sort of talk himself out of just how pathetic he felt.

Of course, things weren't just going to be as easy as he'd thought they would have been, because as Mikey approached Gerard, he approached Gerard, Frank, and Lindsey and Alicia... kissing.

Mikey stared at the two of them like he couldn't believe it: his mind a fucked up mess as he couldn't quite figure out whether to celebrate or die, because holy fuck lesbians, but he'd kind of just lost a bet and Alicia wasn't going to stop gloating like ever, and he knew that.

He sort of awkwardly made his way over to the table the four of them were sat at, and tapped Gerard on the shoulder, while doing his best to avoid eye contact with... the lesbians... that sounded kind of ominous, but Mikey was a fuckboy at heart, and he couldn't but react so awkwardly to the simple fact that girls could kiss each other.

"Hmm?" Gerard spoke before they actually turned to face the person who'd tapped them on the shoulder. "Mikey?" Gerard was shocked to see their brother, but of course, it was nothing in comparison to the expression upon Alicia's face as she and Lindsey pulled away.

"You lost then, didn't you, Mikeyway?" She smirked, leaning into Lindsey's side, and Mikey glared at Lindsey, because holy fuck, he'd trusted her, he'd bribed her- fuck.

"Something like that." Mikey mumbled: cheeks an embarrassing shade of pink.

"Lost what?" Gerard raised an eyebrow; the two hadn't exactly explained the bet or anything at all - it had kind of been an 'oh yeah we're dating' and then they were kissing before Gerard could even consider asking any questions.

Lindsey smirked like a fucking idiot as she glanced between Gerard, Alicia, and Mikey, before finally turning to Frank, who was just a little left out of this conversation. "Oh, this is interesting, isn't it?"

"Lindsey-" Mikey protested: something like a last ditch attempt to retain his dignity, but of course, it went to nothing but waste, because Lindsey was having far too much fun embarrassing him right now.

"Well, Alicia and Mikey made a bet- a very gay bet, and it looks like Alicia won-" Gerard didn't even let Lindsey finish, their eyes practically popping out of their sockets at the use of the word 'gay'.

"Wait what? What the- what?" Gerard turned to face their brother in some form of wide eyed disbelief.

"I like Pete, and Alicia likes Lindsey, and one time you weren't home and she ended up confiding in me about her lesbian crush instead of you, and I ended up telling her about Pete, and then we made some stupid bet to convince us to get the guts to actually tell the person that we liked them-"

"And you're missing out the part where you bribed me not to get gay with my best friend for the sake of your dignity." Lindsey added, biting back a grin, as Gerard raised their eyebrows, because seriously, they couldn't quite believe that nobody had even thought to tell them about this.

"That's quite funny, if I'm honest." Frank added, leaning into Gerard's side, and generally looking like he was about to fall asleep on them, which was kind of cute, but Gerard was a little preoccupied right now.

"And you haven't told Pete that you-" Gerard exclaimed, looking at their brother in nothing short of utter disbelief.

"No, I... that was what I wanted to talk to you about, actually." He blushed, and with that, Gerard got up, and followed Mikey outside.

"So, you need homosexual help, gay guidance, queer questions-" Gerard wasn't exactly sure where they were going with this 'punny' mess, but Mikey looked mildly amused nevertheless.

"I need some bisexual... b-..." Mikey let out a sigh, throwing his head back against the wall. "I can't think of something: I'm not a walking thesaurus, whatever."

"So, basically, you like Pete and you don't have the balls to tell him?" Gerard clarified, because seriously, this was simply as fuck, but Mikey was kind of pathetic at times, and this one of them. Of course, Gerard wasn't exactly exempt from pathetic tendencies, and their whole life was the living proof of that.

"Yeah, exactly that... he texted me the other day about his drunk dog in church, and that's really cute, I guess, I don't know- I fucked this bet up, but I still really do like him, and I need some bisexual... b- fuck, I still can't think of anything."

"So if you're madly in love with Pete, why do you have Grindr on your phone?" Gerard knew this probably was just about the worst thing they could have brought up right now, but they knew that they were going to regardless.

"What?" And at that, Mikey practically died, but Gerard didn't exactly blame him.

"Uhm... I did some experimenting, I mean... I guess, sexuality's confusing, I guess... you know?" Gerard nodded, but more out of comfort for their brother than actual understanding of the fucked up fragments of sentences he was struggling to push from his lips.

"Mikey, just stop fucking around and just tell him." Gerard let out a sigh, their eyes widening a little as they caught the gaze of a certain emo loser making his way towards them.

"I can't." Mikey protested, sighing just a little too loudly.

"Why not?" Gerard continued, making eye contact with the emo loser and beckoning him closer, because okay, maybe this was just a little cruel, but Mikey would soon figure out that it was for nothing than greater good.

"Because I'm pathetic and I like him much more than I could possibly understand..." Pete was definitely within earshot by now, and Gerard was just encouraging their brother to speak louder. "He's just cute, and just too good for me- and I can't even fathom telling him how I feel - it's just a mess, and Pete's just my best friend, so it'd be kind of weird if it fucked up after we broke up or something, I mean, I-"

"Very sly, Gerard, well done." Pete interrupted the two of them with a roll of his eyes, and Mikey practically had a heart attack as he came to realise that Pete fucking Wentz was right behind him.

"Pete- fuck- I... I don't know what to say-"

"How about... 'will you be my boyfriend?'" Pete suggested with a smirk, and Mikey reckoned he could punch the guy in the face right about now, but he opted for kissing him instead, leaving Gerard to figure out that now was probably a fantastic time for them to make a quick exit before things got slightly less PG-13.

-

"Iero?" Frank jumped a little at the sudden call of his name, because well, it was embarrassing, but then again, he was smoking around the back of school when he should have been in Geography right about now, and the voice interrupting his thoughts could have very easily been the voice of a teacher.

But, thank the fucking lord: it wasn't.

Jamia Nestor joined the guy, pulling his cigarette from his fingers and putting it to her lips for an extended amount of time before almost reluctantly passing it back.

"Nestor." Frank finally found himself responding: it was the most delayed response in the history of the fucking world, but better late than never or some other bullshit like that.

"What the fuck happened with you and Bert this morning?" Frank groaned at the notion of the question, but fuck it, what the hell else was she going to ask him about: what he'd had for breakfast this morning or the guy he'd sent to hospital before French.

"Everyone knows it was you- not the teachers, of course, but, you know- everyone's talking about it, and then you fucked off at lunch-" Jamia continued, leaving Frank to accept that he was, in fact, absolutely fucking fucked.

"I was with Gerard at lunch." Frank explained, taking a much needed drag of his cigarette. "And Bert? He called me a faggot, and I wasn't having a good morning, and I told him to shut the fuck up, and he didn't, so I made him."

"Very macho, Iero." She snorted, taking the cigarette from Frank's fingers. "Might have even been impressive if you weren't such a fucking pansy."

Frank let out a sigh. "Gerard and I are a thing, by the way... I haven't really updated you on that, but yeah, it's a thing."

"Bert's trying to get the whole school to think so- some kid, apparently... I don't know exactly I didn't ask, but something about a blowjob in the toilets, fucking bullshit-" Jamia found herself stopping midsentence, just as Frank nearly fucking died. "Oh for fuck's sake, you actually fucking did? Well fucking done, you fucking idiot."

"Sorry." Frank mumbled under his breath, snatching his cigarette back, and finishing it, before putting it out with the heel of his foot.

"You can still deny it to fuck, of course, but, Jesus Christ, you're going to have to deny it with the knowledge that you're a filthy fucking liar." Jamia wasn't exactly the best when it came to optimism or making people feel better about themselves, to say the least.

"Bert called Gerard a faggot too. That's why I really lost it... I like Gerard a lot, I guess... really a lot, or something, they're beautiful, you know?" Frank mumbled, his words barely a whisper, and his gaze fixated anywhere but Jamia.

"Oh Romeo." She rolled her eyes, and Frank was severely unimpressed to be called Romeo for the second fucking time today. "Romeo, oh Romeo, where art thou balls?" And Frank could have fucking slapped her for that. "Hey, look, be nice to me, I'll light another cigarette, and you can share it, okay?"

And as Jamia fumbled with her lighter, Frank took a moment to consider and just accept how unbelievably screwed he was, because well, he just was.

"How much do you think I'd get beaten up if I came out?" It was definitely a hypothetical thing, and Jamia knew that before Frank could even clarify, because although Frank was kind of stupid at times, he didn't have a fucking death wish, and no, it wasn't a fucking fashion statement, either.

"You'd be killed: you'd be slaughtered- you know, you know that bit in the Pirates of the Caribbean where they have those hanging like decapitated bodies of pirates to tell people like basically don't you fucking dare? Yeah, that's you - no homo or you're gonna end up like poor Frank over here."

"How many closeted people do you think there are in our school?" Frank asked, sort of out of blue, and well, he was kind of curious, and he couldn't really help it. "I mean, I don't know, it's just weird to think about isn't it?"

"Isn't Lindsey Ballato supposed to be bi or something?" Jamia asked, and really Frank couldn't help but feel sympathy for the fact that she'd missed out on some major lesbian action earlier today.

"I watched her make out with Alicia Simmons at lunch, so I would say so- well not watched, but they're Gerard's friends, and they were there."

"So are real life lesbians as good as porn lesbians?" Jamia asked a question worthy of a true fuckboy.

"Honestly, believe it or not, I was kind of paying more attention to Gerard than I was them, because well, I'm gay, or something, I don't know... sexuality's weird, but I like Gerard an awful lot."

"Yeah, I gathered, you never stop talking about them, for fuck's sake." Jamia rolled her eyes at him, passing him the cigarette.

"I never stop thinking about them, Jesus Christ, they're beautiful, you know? I, just, god why does everything have to get fucked up right now with Bert in the one moment that maybe everything was just perfect?"

"Because otherwise things would get boring: you've got to have that character development, you've got to have that drama, and ultimately it will be good for you and Gerard's relationship if you've dealt with hardships before."

Frank just looked Jamia straight in the eyes. "You fucking what?"

-


	24. Gabe Saporta The Stubborn Bitch Queen

Frank knew from very moment that he got out of bed that morning that he most absolutely shouldn't have come into school that day.

But Frank was an idiot, and Frank was counting on the fact that Gerard wasn't going to think like that, and in fact, Gerard was nothing but clueless regarding the situation with Bert in its entirety, and maybe things were better that way, hey, maybe they really weren't, but what did it matter?

And Frank didn't even begin to regret his decision to face today with anything but cowardice until the very moment he found himself approaching school, and a wide-eyed Jamia Nestor approaching him.

Of course, she wasn't Bert himself, and that had to be a benefit, didn't it? But it certainly didn't feel like one, because from the way she was looking at him, Frank really wouldn't be all that surprised if she just came up to him and slapped him right across the face - hey, maybe he kind of deserved it anyway.

"You're a fucking idiot, you know you shouldn't have come in today, Jesus Christ, Frank, I've heard he's going to throw you into the fucking wall today, are you actually stupid?" Jamia exclaimed as she reached Frank's side, however he only shrugged her off a little and quickened his pace: intent upon finding Gerard before Bert did.

"If I wasn't here today, he would have only done the same to Gerard, and really, I'd much rather it be me than them, because Gerard really does not deserve to suffer the consequences of my idiocy."

"Frank, I hate to break it to you, but it looks like Bert doesn't give a damn about your romantic protector complex and will absolutely not hesitate to break every bone in both of your bodies, and even simultaneously." And Frank liked to think that Jamia was over exaggerating, but honestly, she really wasn't, but Frank was a good liar, and that stretched to lying to him, so he reckoned that he was fine for now.

"I'll punch him first, I'll fucking do it again- he's not touching Gerard, okay." Frank let out a sigh as the two passed the spot in the corridor where the 'incident' had previously occurred; Frank watched as Jamia's gaze fixated upon the wall and the broken plaster and chipping wallpaper for a second.

"You slammed him against that wall pretty hard from the looks of it." She noted, but Frank only gave her a shrug in response, because well, he didn't exactly put all that much thought into it, he just did it: impulse or something, idiocy or something, what did it matter? He couldn't change what had already happened.

"Frank!" The two jumped a little as a voice called out Frank's name from further down the corridor; he looked up and found himself more than a little relieved to see that it was Alicia shouting his name, and not, well Bert.

He quickened his pace in response to her call, making his way around the corner in record time, or something, and with Jamia at his heels, which certainly grabbed a raise of the eyebrows on Alicia's part as she met Jamia's gaze.

"What's wrong?" Frank asked, glancing between Alicia and Gerard with widened eyes. "Is it Bert- I, I-?"

Gerard let out a sigh in response, making their way to stand closer to their boyfriend. "Well, we don't know, but Lindsey isn't here, and she hasn't said anything to either of us about being ill or whatever, and I don't know, I was just really hoping that you'd seen her."

"I haven't..." Frank trailed off, his eyes widening a little as he began to process this information.

"It wouldn't be ridiculous to say that Bert would have something to do with this, just saying." Jamia added, gaining the skepticism laced gazes of Alicia and Gerard in reward for her efforts. "I'm Jamia, by the way, I'm friends with Frank, I don't know if we've ever actually had a proper conversation but I know who you two are."

"Yeah of course you do, I'm the slightly less hot lesbian, and Gerard's the art fag, everyone fucking knows that-"

"Alicia-" Frank began, not at all prepared to deal with this kind of girl on girl hate, because well, he was a dude, and it was like eight in the morning, and he was not at all prepared for this shit. "Jamia's nice, okay?"

"Didn't know you had any friends that were nice." Gerard added with a shrug, remaining kind of neutral in their decision to make their own unbiased judgement upon Jamia.

"I have you, don't I?" Frank asked with a raise of his eyebrows.

"Oh but we're more than friends."

"Well, then, you're more than just nice-"

"Guys." Alicia snapped, hating to interrupting the wonderfully cute moment occurring right then, but her eyes had fallen upon something down the corridor that was definitely worth their attention, but of course, her verbal efforts to attract their attention were soon rendered pathetic with the loud bang that resonated through the corridor, the wall beside them vibrating with the impact.

"You can fuck right off!" A voice, blatantly Lindsey's called out from down the corridor: all eyes upon her and whatever was happening just out of the four's vision, however they weren't particularly in all that much rush to move and see what all the fuss was about as Lindsey pushed through the mess of people and made her way to where the four were stood.

"What the fuck was that?" Alicia was the first to speak, obviously really fucking concerned about her girlfriend, and grabbing Lindsey's hand as she did so.

"Bert McCracken-"

"Called it." Jamia added in what was probably an out of place addition to the conversation in relation to just how little she knew these people, but whatever.

"Jamia Nestor?" Lindsey raised an eyebrow at the girl standing beside Frank, and she nodded in response. "Anyway, yeah, the asshole's in front of me and he's going on about how he's going to 'kill' you or something, and then he fucking notices me, and starts fucking flirting with me, and it's like no, bitch, no, and Bert is one of those guys that doesn't know the meaning of the word 'no', and I just fucking hope he gets a severe concussion from the amount of times he's going to get thrown against a wall this week."

"That's pretty badass." Jamia smiled at her, and Alicia couldn't help but bite her lip and subdue the serious jealous lesbian vibes that were occurring right now.

"Well, I am pretty badass after all." Lindsey shrugged it off with a grin, before turning to Frank, who was kind of just gaping at her. "You need to fix your shit, okay? This is your mess and although I do love punching assholes, I shouldn't have to do with Bert McCracken everyday, okay? And it's not just me, it's going to affect Gerard too, so think about them before you doing something stupid next time, will you?"

Frank blushed a little as the bell rang throughout the corridors. "Yeah, I will."

"Whatever." Lindsey shrugged as she grabbed Alicia's hand and the two pissed off to whatever lesson they were supposed to have now.

"It's fine, she's just being Lindsey, okay?" Gerard muttered, turning to Frank in the hallway. "You're still my amazing little shit of a boyfriend, okay?"

"Your amazingly hot shit of a boyfriend?" Frank smirked, but Gerard only shook their head in response.

"How about my shit boyfriend?"

"Nah, we know that's not true: I don't slam Bert McCracken into walls for just anyone."

And that was probably a compliment or something.

-

With the nature of Gerard's kind and somewhat sappily romantic words earlier, you would imagine that Frank would be grinning like an idiot throughout the duration of his next lesson, but that really wasn't the case as Frank turned up to English found himself with the slap across the face, or rather slam into the wall, realisation that Bert McCracken as in this class.

Thankfully, Bert hadn't quite arrived yet, and Frank put that down to the fact that he was probably still curled dying beside a wall in the corridor, but he did his best to bury that thought completely as he sat down on the only vacant desk on the back row.

Frank's stance upon getting through English was kind of his stance for getting through most lessons, and that generally involved earphones and very little attention paid to the subject, because whatever, Frank didn't give a shit, however, as ten minutes passed and a very disgruntled looking Bert McCracken made his way through the door, handing a note to the teacher before taking the last remaining seat, which of course just had to be two desks in front of Frank.

Because although, this time, Frank hadn’t technically been the one to actually slam Bert into the wall, but they were both very well aware of the fact that none of this would have ever happened if Frank hadn't done it in the first place, or better still, if Bert hadn't called him, or more importantly, Gerard, a faggot.

Perhaps Frank had made a big deal out of nothing here, but he really was living up to his newfound sappy romanticism with his absolute sheer determination to 'protect' Gerard at all costs: he was making himself sick here, but whatever, there was little he could do about it now, except maybe burn holes in the back of Bert's head with his eyes for the next hour.

Of course, Frank had been overlooking one very important detail here, and that was the matter of gossip and general meaningless classroom conversation that had just happened to get his attention today, and that may or may not have had something to do with the presence of Bert's little incident with the wall and Lindsey in these whispers, and then before he really knew what was happening, he found some asshole tapping him on the shoulder in a ridiculous attempt to get his attention.

"Frank? Iero? Frank Iero?" He pulled an earphone out and turned to face the little shit sat next to him. "Was it true that you were the one who smashed Bert's head against the wall yesterday, because Lindsey's done it now, so was it you or her first? Who's copying here and who's the original?"

"Uhh..." Needless to say, that wasn't exactly the kind of question Frank was expecting, but he found himself obliged to respond regardless of the minimal I.Q. required to string such a question together. "I did it first, and then Lindsey, like Lindsey's my friend... so like, it's, Bert was just harassing her like he was harassing me yesterday, it's not like a thing-"

"Wait so what did Bert do to you to make you want to kill him, because I heard that he was like millimetres away from dying?" And just like that Frank declared this little shit sat near him in English the absolute worst person on the motherfucking planet.

"He called me a faggot." Frank shrugged it off, because what did it matter at this point? "And I told him I wasn't, and he wouldn't shut up, so I told him to shut up, and he didn't-"

"That's kind of cool actually." The kid added and Frank wasn't sure whether to thank him or slam him against wall too; Frank really did enjoy slamming people against walls, after all, he was good at it, he'd had a lot of practice with Gerard, but that was a whole different type of wall slamming entirely."

"What's cool?" Bert turned around as the teacher made his way out of the room to grab something: some worksheets, or a couple of pills or something, whatever it was, he really didn't look like he was having a particularly good time.

"Oh, yeah, when Frank slammed you into the wall the other day." Yeah, Frank was right: this kid was dense as fuck.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Bert added, getting up and making his way over to Frank's desk. "Oh come on, Iero, I've seen you with Gerard, we all know what a faggot you are, and honestly there was no need to make such a big deal out of lying to me, was there? Hey, look, if you just admit the truth: that you're a faggot and that you and Gerard Way are faggots together, then I'll drop this all completely, stop harassing you and your 'friends' whatever, but if you don't, I'll have you know that I'm very, very aware of just what went on in the toilets between you and Gerard the other day."

Frank turned so pale he looked like he died right there on the spot.

"Have a nice day, Frankie, I assume you'll make your mind up by tomorrow, won't you?" And with that, Bert sat back down and the teacher made his way back in to resume the lesson, and just like that, everything was normal again, but for Frank, it really, really wasn't.

-

When William Beckett arrived at Gabe Saporta's doorstep, neither party was entirely sure what to expect, because, Gabe was well aware that he and Gerard weren't exactly on the best of terms, and he would even go as far as to say that he was surprised that Gerard had actually followed through with this 'get me a boyfriend' bullshit, and in fact, he'd even had something vaguely resembling a heart attack when he'd received the 'your boyfriend is arriving at your house in like an hour' text, because really, Gerard hadn't given him any warning at all.

But whatever, Gabe could probably get laid tonight so he wasn't exactly in the mood for serious complaint, of course, though this random guy could be a total asshole, and of course, Gabe could easily just punch Gerard if that was the case, but he was pretty sure that Frank would make him the next Bert McCracken with a slam against the wall if he did so.

Seriously, Frank showing that he was prepared to break bones really had been the best thing that had ever happened to Gerard and their sorry excuse for a lovelife. 

Gabe wondered if Frank liked slamming Gerard against walls too, like it was a casual thought and that he wasn't just thinking about two people he knew fucking, in a totally non-perverted way, whatever, Gabe didn't care; he was getting laid.

Or at he least he fucking hoped so, because Gabe was very prepared to be very disappointed and very, very angry.

But whatever, it was out of his control, and he held that fact firmly in his mind as he finally grew the balls to open his front door, meeting the stranger with a grin, which admittedly, did look a little creepy, but Gabe had far more to think about than himself right then, because holy hot damn- fuck, who the hell had Gerard sacrificed to Satan to get this boy to agree to meet him?

"Gabe?" The boy asked, a smile pulling at his lips as he blushed, and goddamn Gabe was dying, because he was fucking cute, and fucking cuter when he said his name.

"Yeah, that's me." Gabe added with a smile, and the guy stepped inside, closing the door behind himself, and Gabe soon came to realise that he didn’t actually know this fucking guy's name.

"And yeah, I'm William, just in case you'd forgotten." Thank fuck, Gabe prayed in thanks to just about every deity know to mankind for a moment, before pondering just whether Gerard had simply forgotten to tell him William's name, or whether there was something far more 'sinister', or well, just dodgy going on here. It did kind of seem too good to be true, after all.

"So, it's really nice to meet you." Gabe began, smiling awkwardly at the boy. "D-do you wanna like go to my bedroom- fuck, not like to fuck, like I- if you want, but- like to hang out?" And within a few minutes, he'd already completely messed this one up.

William just laughed, rolling his eyes a little. "Nervous?" He added with the raise of one eyebrow, and Gabe knew for sure that if his face wasn't so damn pretty that he would have fucking slapped him - right then and right there.

"Not really." Gabe laughed it off, but from the continued skepticism evident upon William's face, he was well aware that it wasn't working.

"Prove it." And oh fuck, maybe Gabe's chances of getting laid had just improved by about a million percent.

"I would, but you don't look like the kind of guy who gets laid on the first date." Gabe commented, leading William upstairs in the subtlest and least 'put your dick in my ass right now' manner he could muster, however he wasn't exactly doing all that well, but then again, what was to be expected?

"Don't I?" William exclaimed in something like mock offense, or at least Gabe really hoped it was indeed mock offense. "You calling me ugly or something, asshole?"

"I'm calling you cute, actually, you look cute, you look hard to get, you look like you're not going to let people fuck you easily." Gabe finished, and smirking at William: far too proud of just how good of a job he'd done of making his way out of that one.

"I'm not cute- I'm seductive, I'm hot, I'm so hot I'm making your dick hot right now, aren't I?" William grinned, pinning Gabe up against the wall before he could protest, and to say the least, Gabe really had not be expecting that.

"You want to find out?" Gabe raised an eyebrow: kind of just teasing, kind of just testing to see how far William would go in this weird little flirtatious argument thing, because well, he didn't seem like the stubborn type, and well Gabe was the absolute bitch queen of stubbornness, and he was far too stubborn when it came to retaining his title.

"Sure thing." He let out a sigh, his hand finding his way to Gabe's crotch, and oh fuck, his bulge was most definitely prominent through his jeans. "God, you're hard as fuck."

"Uh-hmm..." Gabe let out this strangled kind of 'I really did not expect you to go this far but I am no way stepping down now' groan noise, which William couldn't help but smirk in appreciation of, because in his mind, he'd most definitely won this one.

"You want me to do something about that?" William asked, raising the pitch of his voice a little as he did so, keeping up this stupid 'I wouldn't fuck you on the first date' facade that Gabe had been tricked into falling for.

"Uhh-god-uhh-yes-" That same strangled groaning sound again, mixed with the fragments of a poorly annunciated sentence. "Please." He met William's gaze before he could stop himself: thinking with his hormones instead of his head, but fuck this, because holy fuck, and he seriously owed Gerard one for this, because dear lord.

And that was exactly how William Beckett sank to his knees before the two had even reached Gabe's bedroom.

And to phrase the prior sentence differently, that was exactly how Gabe Saporta died.

He had a weird urge to brag about this on his Snapchat story or something right now, but he doubted that William would particularly appreciate it if he just pulled his phone out and took a quick 'getting sucked off right now' selfie, because of course, those were all so in fashion.

But Gabe didn't really get much of a chance to really continue that thought before William got his mouth around his tip, and well, Gabe's mind basically catapulted out of his skull at that point, because if William Beckett was good at anything, he was goddamn good at getting on his knees.

Gabe wondered if he was in anyway special or if Gerard had actually just hired him a very well disguised prostitute, and this was all some weirdass practical joke. He let himself opt for the first one, because well, Gabe reckoned having some sort of mental breakdown whilst getting sucked off wasn't exactly the best combination of events.

"You're not being loud enough." William pulled away, leaning back on his knees and looking up at Gabe with a sort of disappointed expression. "Am I not being good enough?"

"God- no- God, you're fantastic, I'm just... I'm not a vocal person, I guess... habit... living with my parents and many hot dates with my own hand... I guess?" Gabe shrugged, blushing at William like the guy hadn't been sucking him off mere moments ago.

"Can I change that?"

"You can try- ah-" And as Gabe's eyes grew wide, William taking as much of him into his mouth as he could, he found himself proved very, very wrong indeed. "Don't you fucking stop, again, Jesus Christ." He found his tone growing just a little harsher now, but he was hard as fuck, and he really doubted William minded all that much if he was quite so eager to practically choke himself on Gabe within minutes of meeting him.

Perhaps William Beckett was just a goddamn whore.

Perhaps that wasn't a bad thing.

But whatever it was, Gabe knew he'd be thinking about this moment every night for weeks, maybe even months, on end if his sexlife didn't suddenly take a turn for the better.

A few minutes later, Gabe found himself embarrassingly close to making a literal hot mess all over poor William Beckett's face, and his voice strained and unable to vocalise his concerns for the boy's face, before it was entirely too late, and he was pulling away, and coming, and throwing his head back against the wall hard enough to give himself a concussion all at the same time.

Thankfully, Gabe didn't actually give himself a concussion, because although he had been proven wrong about the getting some action on the first date thing, he still found it unlikely that William was up for taking him to hospital on the first date, unless he had a weird kink or something like that, and perhaps that wasn't something he particularly wanted to think about right then.

"Your come tastes like shit- well, it doesn't, it tastes like come, but it isn't very nice." William let out the most casual 'I just swallowed' comment ever, and still from on his knees, which really wasn't helping Gabe think like a rational human being right now, but whatever.

"You didn't have to swallow." Gabe raised an eyebrow, letting out a sigh as William finally took the initiative to get to his feet.

"You didn’t have to come in my mouth." He countered with a smirk, but making it evident that he didn't particularly mind. "Anyway, you going to return the favour, or what?"

Gabe nearly choked on William's words, and well, he was a bit early with the choking, to say the least.

"I haven't exactly done this before." He admitted with a blush so strong he doubted that he'd ever really be able to live it down.

"There's a first time for everything." William shrugged it off. "Come on, I'm hard as fuck already, you don't have to do it for long, just come on, it's polite, it's like holding the door for someone... but holding someone's dick for them... in your mouth."

"That's a terrible simile, you should shut the fuck up."

"You should make me." And perhaps Gabe really had lost this one as he found himself falling his knees, and vowing not to see Gerard for the next month or so, just to avoid the 'oh how did it go?' conversation, because 'oh, yeah on my knees' was kind of an awkward answer, and even more so if you considered their 'history' of sorts.

It wasn't exactly as disgusting as Gabe had kind of expected it to be, but of course that was rich coming from him; he couldn't just be on the receiving end all the time, and well, that was a good orgasm, and this was only fair, and his technique was, to be quite literal, sloppy, but William didn't seem to mind: fucking Gabe's mouth a little, which he was kind of thankful for that, because he really did not know what the fuck he was doing for the most part.

It was nothing like porn, to say the least, but of course he knew that already, but still, everything was always different when you experienced it first-hand, or first-mouth, or whatever, Gabe's head was kind of preoccupied with, well, head right now.

"You're doing good- ah... good, fucking great." William offered him some words of encouragement, and Gabe took a moment to remind himself just what was happening here, because he sounded an awful lot like Gabe's mum when he'd won some shitty ass sports thing at school like five years ago, except without the 'fucking' part, or the moaning part, or the blowjob part, or-

Or the pulling away frantically and coming on the carpet part.

"I'm gonna have to clean that up." Gabe groaned, throwing his head back against the wall once more, but this time in frustration, as opposed to pleasure.

"Like there was a chance in hell you were going to be able to swallow without puking all over me." William rolled his eyes, and Gabe couldn't help but blush and admit defeat, because Gerard had outdone themself here: finding the one person in the whole world who was the slightest bit more stubborn than Gabe himself.

"How about next time?"

"Next time?"

Gabe nodded. "Next time."

-


	25. In Which We Learn That Bert McCracken Does Not Like Watersports

"I'm not entirely sure how he even got himself into this mess."

"With a brick wall, that's how." Jamia laughed a little, rolling her eyes, and turning away from Lindsey, who she'd be partnered with in chemistry, and really, this wasn't the worst outcome, but she knew that it most certainly wasn't the best either.

And a lot of that was down to the fact that just about the only thing they had in common was putting up with Frank Iero's idiocy on a day to day basis, so the conversation wasn't exactly anything extraordinary.

"Yeah, I guess that's pretty obvious, but... yeah, doesn't matter." Lindsey got up from the chair that she wasn't even technically allowed to be sitting on right now, because you totally can't sit down when you're pouring some shit into a test-tube, ever, or you will totally just decompose right on the spot, like seriously, that's how science works, okay? "Do you even know what we're supposed to be doing here?"

"Nope." Jamia shook her head with a stupid ass grin, finding herself far more focused upon the extremely perplexing mystery as to just how many souls Lindsey Ballato had sold to Satan himself to look that good with those shitty ass science goggles on. Jamia reckoned Lindsey could be dressed in a fucking grape costume and still look like a fucking model, but of course, remember, no homo.

"Maybe you should have listened?" Lindsey suggested, grabbing the shit everybody else seemed to have, and watching some kid across the room pour something into a test-tube, and then trying to replicate his actions the best she could, because science.

"Maybe you should have." Jamia shrugged it off, smirking to herself, because this was probably the most fun she'd had in a chemistry lesson ever, and no it most certainly did not have anything to do with Lindsey Ballato, because remember kids, no homo.

"Look, fuck it, I'm just copying him, so we'll be fine." Lindsey gestured vaguely towards the kid she'd been copying with a pencil, and nearly ended up dropping it in the process, and it was in fact very disappointing that she didn't drop it in the end, because then, well then, Lindsey would have to bend over to pick it up.

Well, maybe it was for the better that she didn't, because Jamia was getting dangerously homo right now, and that was not a risk her heteronormativity was about to take.

"What did you mean about Frank earlier?" Jamia asked after a moment spent in silence, totally not staring at Lindsey, because no homo, and there was also the small matter of Alicia Simmons, and Jamia really wasn't trying to be an asshole here, but she was straight, so it was fine.

"What?" Lindsey jumped out of thought: a little startled by Jamia's sudden question, but still managing to look incredibly beautiful in the process. "Oh, the... the... yeah... I just, why would anyone ever even associate with Bert McCracken? You've got to admit that this is his fault, even if only just a little?"

"I don't know." Jamia shrugged, not entirely where she should stand on this in order to portray herself in the least homosexual manner possible. "A little, I guess? But I wouldn't blame him, I mean- I don't know, he's my friend - I'm biased."

"Yeah, I get what you mean, like I'd never mention this in front of Gerard for the simple fear of getting myself decapitated or something, or perhaps even Alicia, I mean, she really does like Frank- not _like_ like, but you know, she's gotten really close with Gerard recently, and- god, Jamia, I hate to admit this, but Frank is not my favourite person in the world."

"Oh..." Jamia trailed off, her gaze hitting the floor in preparation for the inevitable cut throat awkward silence.

"Like, I know he makes Gerard so happy, and their relationship is none of my business, and he's nice to Gerard, there's real love there, anyone can see that, but... as a person, like, he's not the kind of person I'd befriend if I had a choice, sure I'll be civil, but if he wasn't dating Gerard, I reckon I'd find myself hating the guy's guts at this point, because fuck- he's just a bit of idiot, you know? And I'm kind of scared that one day he's going to be an idiot when it comes to Gerard, and Gerard's going to forgive him because they're Gerard, and I-... I... fuck, I don't even know..."

"Frank wouldn't be a dick to Gerard, though, everyone knows that." Jamia let out some form of forced laughter that accomplished nothing but making the conversation at least ten times more uncomfortable. "He threw Bert into that wall because the guy insulted Gerard, remember?"

"But no one can know that he even likes Gerard, let alone is dating them- like I get, okay, maybe you don't want the world to know that you like it up the ass, but, if you don't want anyone to know that you even consider yourself friends with someone-" Lindsey stopped, shaking her head, and turning back to the test-tube, and stirring it a little. "Sure, Frank's got issues, you can tell, but... like... I don't know, I don't know what I expect, I just... maybe less starting shit with assholes that aren't worth it, and more admitting that you like that 'weird kid'?"

"You're pissed because Bert was a dick to you because of him." And it wasn't posed as a question because at this point, Jamia already knew the answer.

"Something like that." Lindsey let out a sigh, glancing across the classroom at the kid she was copying the experiment from. "I guess I just prefer slamming girls into walls than guys, especially dickheads, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, I'm surprised Alicia hasn't suffered any broken bones at this rate, then." Jamia grinned at Lindsey, and she was very proud to say that it was indeed a heterosexual grin, because goddamn it, no homo!

Lindsey blushed a little, letting her gaze drift to the floor. "It's not like that with me and Alicia, though, she's... I don't know, kind of awkward about the whole gay thing still... we haven't really done that much more than kiss and I-... I don't know, I shouldn't expect anything, should I? God, you must think I'm such a bitch; I've done nothing but rant about my friends to you, god I-"

"It's fine." Jamia promised her, smiling that same motherfucking heterosexual smile. "Everyone has flaws, you can't be expected to only ever see the good in people."

"Yeah, point, bring down my ego for now though, tell me one of my flaws, just come on, I'm getting bitchy about things."

"I..." Jamia's eyes widened as she raked her gaze over Lindsey. "I don't fucking know, honestly Lindsey, you are pretty perfect, I mean, you look- you look good in fucking lab goggles, you actually-"

"Are you flirting with me, Jamia Nestor?" Lindsey raised her eyebrows, and nearly gave Jamia's prized heterosexuality a heart attack in the process.

"No, god no I- no homo."

"No homo." Lindsey repeated, smirking to herself.

"Yeah, yeah, no fucking homo."

Needless to say, Lindsey wasn't convinced.

-

Gerard Way was totally not skipping French in the toilets, and they were totally not doing it because they totally hadn't revised for their speaking exam.

Gerard was pretty goddamn shit at French, and well, to say the least, their grades reflected that, and perhaps it was something to do with the utter lack of revision they'd done, like ever, but they liked to think it just was something they weren't naturally good at.

Because sacre fucking bleu their ass.

Bonjour was probably the extent of Gerard's French vocabulary, and then, of course, 'baguette', because that was the same, and like 'croissant', and yeah, yeah, that was pretty much it; they could pretty much say 'au revoir' to any hopes of passing this goddamn French exam, but fuck it, and goddamn, they really wished they knew what 'fuck it' was in French, but with this habit of skipping French class, Gerard had no one but themself to blame.

But to comfort their lingually tragic self, Gerard liked to think that in an alternate universe they were an old man who lived in an apartment and knew entirely too much French and just painted nudes all day, and kept a motherfucking dove and changed its motherfucking name every week like sane people do, and drank only wine, and oh yeah, groomed seventeen year old boys and eventually fucked them, but with art, so it was fine, and then at the end, fucked off to Paris, because 'au revoir, bitches'.

Gerard met their reflection in the mirror, finding themself unsure as to just where the fuck such a preposterous thought had emerged from.

But, Gerard knew things, remember?

However, unfortunately, Gerard didn't exactly have as much time to ponder their alternate existence as they would have liked before the toilet door opened, and in walked, oh fuck, basically just about the worst person that could have.

And no, it wasn't French speaking Gerard from the alternate universe, it was Bert motherfucking McCracken.

And if Gerard believed in karma, they would say that this was karma for skipping French, but at the very least, they doubted that Bert wasn't going to force them to take their French oral exam, but another kind of oral... perhaps, fucking perhaps.

It soon dawned upon Gerard that they'd never thrown anyone into a wall before, but there was always a first time for anything, and goddamn, Bert must be getting pretty weak from being thrown into a wall all the time.

They almost felt sorry for the guy: almost.

"If you throw me into a wall I'm going to fucking piss on you." Gerard hadn't been aware that Bert McCracken was a fan of water sports, but of course, you learn something new everyday, don't you?

"Oh... okay... I..." Gerard wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, as Bert turned away to take a piss, and Gerard hadn't exactly woken up that day with any suspicion that they'd find themself in quite possibly the world's most awkward situation ever, and that was of course, in the bathroom with the person who they hated most, and with the only sound being Bert's piss.

"I've been thrown into a wall twice now, you know." Bert finished pissing and made his way over to the sinks to wash his hands. "It's not fun."

"I can imagine." Gerard stuttered out, because yeah, Bert made them nervous: there was absolutely no way around that.

"You could tell your boyfriend to stop being such a dickhead then?" Bert suggested, stopping for a moment to meet Gerard's gaze.

"Yeah, I- o-okay..."

"So he is your boyfriend then?" Bert raised his eyebrows at that, because he hadn't been entirely expecting it, but it was indeed a strong possibility, so it wasn't exactly a major shock to him. "It's fine, I'm a nice guy, really, also I'm as baked as a potato right now, it's unlikely I’ll even remember this. I suspected it anyway, he's quite protective, you know? Like nearly breaking my spine was a bit overboard just because I called you a faggot, but whatever."

"Why did you call me a faggot though?" Gerard asked, stepping forward with a sudden confidence that they weren't at all sure how they'd obtained, but okay, they were in no place to question it.

"I don't know, I was more stoned then." Bert grinned, leaning back against the wall and meeting Gerard's gaze. "You know you remind me of someone- do you like have a sister or a cousin or something? Gee? Miniskirt, red lipstick, dark hair like yours?"

"I... uhh..." And yeah, Gerard was fucked at this point, but there was no question about the amusement in the fact that a stoned Bert McCracken had gotten it within a few instances of seeing them, whereas Frank had been seeing Gerard on a regular basis for far too long, and goddamn, Frank Iero was an idiot at times.

"Because, Frank had some sort of flirty thing with her, and I was like very disappointed, because she was hot as fuck, so now he's got you, I'm like going to find her and make a move, you know?" Bert slurred his words a little, just reinforcing just how fucking messed up was, and well, Gerard, as they often did, had a stupid idea.

"Hey, Bert, you want to know something?"

He nodded.

"There's no 'Gee', that was just me in a miniskirt and make up."

Bert met Gerard's gaze for a moment, before shrugging it off with an, "oh okay then," and leaving the bathroom.

-

Frank was having something vaguely resembling a mental breakdown, and hadn't spoken to Gerard for nearly twenty four hours now, and was having some serious homosexual withdrawal symptoms, but that was besides the point; his life kind of revolved around the mess with Bert McCracken, and well, that was really nothing more than Frank's own fault.

He'd ended up ditching school before break time even came around, but for the first time in what felt like forever, he was on his own, and for the first time, Frank didn't even mind.

He couldn't go home with his mum there, and he had little else to go than the skate park, however he was make some sort of habit of avoiding that place like the plague now, because he really reckoned he didn't want to be even vaguely acquainted with the kind of people that genuinely believed being gay was a bad thing, like not even just thinking it was 'weird', but the people that actively hated it.

Of course, not everyone there was like that, but a lot of Frank's old friends, and well, Bert's current friends resided there, and that wasn't a crowd he found himself with the guts to face.

And with that, he found himself settling on taking a seat on the grass in the corner of the park; he was sufficiently hidden from the prying eyes of middle aged women with young children who would most definitely grill him as to why he wasn't in school, and it was also a pretty cool spot to smoke without attracting too much attention, because that was all Frank had left to do.

Smoke.

He apologised to his lungs as he lit the cigarette, exhaling loudly, and wondering just when, if ever he'd get to the end of this mess.

Maybe he just shouldn't have reacted at all, even if Bert was being a dick, because everyone was doing a fucking wonderful job of forgetting that Bert had in fact been a dick to him first. Perhaps Frank just cared a little bit too much about Gerard, but whatever it was, he doubted that he could ever quite admit it to himself.

He was an idiot like that, and he knew it, because seriously, throwing Bert into a wall was an overreaction, and he knew it.

Perhaps it was just pointless, because Gerard hadn't even seemed to have cared that much, like sure, they sucked him off, but Frank was looking for some kind of sympathy and understanding that he found himself without.

In fact, Frank wasn't exactly sure what he wanted at all.

He just wanted it to be okay, or something like that, at the very least.

But there was only the matter of Frank's ego preventing him from just apologising to Bert, and hanging his head in shame, but getting the fuck over this.

Maybe he just needed to talk to someone, and that someone was most likely Jamia, but she hadn't answered any of the last six texts Frank had sent her, and well, Frank was just about fucked otherwise.

"Can I bum a smoke?" And Frank practically had a heart attack, but dying of heart failure probably would have been more fun than facing up to this mess he'd created for himself, but 'unfortunately', Frank was still alive as he turned his head to face the guy who'd spoken.

He was around Frank's age, or at least looked that way, because after all, he could just be a very well moisturised forty year old- yeah, the guy was about sixteen, and with brown hair, but that didn't particularly matter, and he was kind of cute, but that didn't matter either, because Frank had Gerard, and the guy wanted a cigarette, not sucking off.

"Oh shit, yeah, sorry... I..." Frank held out the packet to him, and nearly punched himself in the face as the guy took the liberty of sitting down beside him and forcing him into the hell that was awkward, unwanted conversation. 

"I'm Bill, well, it's William, William Beckett, but like... Bill... that's fine, anything's fine, you can call me that asshole who stole a cigarette if you want, but I reckon that's kind of long winded."

Frank cracked a smile, "I guess it is. I'm Frank, Frank Iero, no nickname though, but you can call me the asshole you stole a cigarette from, if you want, but Frank is fine."

"Yeah, I'm going to go with Frank." Bill smiled to himself, lighting his cigarette, before turning back to Frank. "Can I ask your opinion on something?"

"Sure." Frank shrugged it off, because this was actually doing a wonderful job of helping him forget the mess he was in, and therefore, in Frank's mind, William Beckett was nothing short of a godsend, stolen cigarette or not.

"Is it bad to suck a dude off on the first date, or well, the first time we met- it was a Grindr thing, like yeah, I didn't intend to, but I did end up on my knees by the end of it, and it wasn't bad. I mean he was reluctant to return the favour, which is like an instant red flag, but like, maybe he's just no an experienced homo- do you reckon I was going on too strong or something?"

Frank's eyes widened, taking a moment just to take it in, because well, he'd been expecting something like 'should I get red or black converse' and not, well, this... whatever this was.

"Sorry, please don't tell me you're one of those straight assholes, because, not going to lie, you're cute, but I'm preoccupied, you see-"

"As am I." Frank paused for a moment. "Their name's Gerard."

"Oh okay, so, what do you think about the whole first date thing?" Bill continued with barely even a raise of an eyebrow, and Frank knew he was going to like this guy.

"It depends, doesn't it? I mean, if both of you wanted it, and he's still happy about it then there's nothing wrong with it, honestly just ask him." Bill grimaced at Frank's suggestion. "So you're not scared of getting on your knees for him, but scared of asking him how he felt about it?"

"Shut up." He rolled his eyes, taking a drag of his cigarette. "He kind of dared me to anyway - it was weird, he was like 'I bet you don't do anything on the first date' and I'm a stubborn little shit so I had to prove him wrong, didn't I?"

"I would probably do the same, if I'm honest." Frank grinned, shaking his head a little. "Me and Gerard wasn't quite as easy as that, of course, because that would be too nice, wouldn't it? Just text him, go on."

"No, tell me about you and Gerard-"

"I will if you text him; I'm not saying a word until you show me that sent message, got it?" Frank finished his cigarette, and didn't even hesitation in lighting another, because his lungs, well, were fucked, like his life.

"Done." Bill muttered after a moment, holding up his phone to Frank, who after a moment, gave a satisfied nod. "It's your fault if my life is ruined because of this, you know?"

"You're overreacting." Frank spoke the obvious, and William threw him a middle finger, which he took the liberty of ignoring.

"Now come on, tell me about your love life - it's only fair." He pouted, and Frank rolled his eyes before continuing.

"I'm not entirely where to start if I'm honest." Frank let out a sigh, finding himself falling through memories and stumbling into that one day outside the theatre when it was raining. "Okay, so Gerard's non binary, so they use they/them pronouns, but that was a thing that happened recently, so when I met them, they were a boy, okay?"

William nodded, taking it far better than Frank had expected. "Yeah, okay sure."

"And I did kind of think they were a girl for a while, like, okay, there was Gee, and there was Gerard, and Gee was this incredibly hot girl in a miniskirt who I couldn't fuck, and Gerard was this weird, but cute art kid who I sucked off in a detention once, and... it was a mess, because there was a point when I was dating the both of them, like cheating on Gee with Gerard... turns out Gee was Gerard, and well, that was an interesting conversation, but we're good now, well we would have been if I hadn't started that mess with this guy called Bert, but that's... that's really not worth your time."

"That sounds like the plot of some sort of teen movie that was on MTV like five years ago." Bill raised his eyebrows in disbelief, shaking his head at Frank. "But, it's ridiculous enough to be believable, and you don't look like you'd lie to me. Tell me about Bert, though."

"Bert called Gerard a fag, so I threw him into a wall and now he wants to kill me, Gerard, and Gerard's friends."

"Not your friends though?" William raised an eyebrow at that.

"Well, Bert was one of my friends at one point, it's complicated, basically I'm the cliché closeted gay boy whose friends are homophobic assholes that he's too afraid to stand up to, and I'm dating the kid who everyone knows likes it up the ass, but secretly, of course, because my ego is far too important to me, and Gerard's friend Lindsey definitely low key hates me for it, like she'll tolerate me, but only because Gerard likes me, otherwise, I reckon she'd be first in line to punch me."

"Write down your life story and sell it as a book, I'm fucking telling you." Bill gestured wildly with his cigarette. "I fucking called it though, I'm getting a forty percent cut."

"Thirty." Frank narrowed his eyes, unsatisfied with the terms of their hypothetical business deal, because well it was really anything to avoid dealing with this mess with Bert. "Just tell me how to fix this mess, okay?" 

"Come out." Bill avoided his gaze with the knowledge that Frank really wouldn't like this. "Come out and stop lying to people about who you are, and then you can avoid it in the future as well."

"I can't do that- I- can't."

"Okay, list me everyone that knows you're gay.."

"You, Gerard, Lindsey, Alicia, Jamia, Mikey, Pete, my mum... I think that's it?" Frank looked up from counting them out on his fingers, and Bill, well, he looked impressed.

"Tell me who they are, and how they reacted." And Frank obliged without question, and he wasn’t exactly sure why, but he just did.

"Well, Gerard, you know who they are, and they were just kind of surprised, I guess. Lindsey, she's Gerard's best friend, and she's gay, so she didn't really give a shit, and Alicia's now Lindsey's girlfriend, but wasn't before, but like she didn't care either. Jamia's my friend, the one I just tell shit to usually, and well, she was kind of surprised, but she got over it. Mikey's Gerard's brother, and he didn't particularly give a shit either, but he's a bit weird about me dating Gerard, but like, that's understandable, and Pete is Mikey's friend - he just knows from Mikey, like we don't really talk, and then my mum.. well... she kind of guessed it actually, it was weird, she was more fussed with meeting Gerard and embarrassing me than anything else."

"See, so nothing bad came of you coming out before, so why should it now?"

"Because those people are people I like, and people at school are assholes, and they will ruin my life, and they will tease me like they tease Gerard." Frank sighed out, not at all ready to just give in yet.

"I reckon you have to be pretty stupid to make fun of the guy who threw a guy into a wall, don't you think?" And well, there was no way around the fact that he had a good point here.

"People are pretty stupid, you know." Frank groaned, grimacing at the thought. "It's me more than anything: I am scared, I really am."

"So stop being such a coward then? Look, I took your advice, and it's only polite that you take mine-"

"It's different."

"Oh come on, Frank, stop making excuses, will you?"

"Absolutely fucking never." Frank shook his head firmly, grinning a little, because okay, maybe he'd consider it, but as a last resort, because Frank Iero was made to be a liar and coward through and through, and despite how much he wanted to, there was nothing William Beckett could do to change that.

-


	26. i'm so ill i have no idea what to call this chapter

Pete Wentz's idea of a hot date was an empty house, a massive bag of Doritos, and a Breaking Bad boxset.

It wasn't exactly the stuff of movies or daydreams, but quite honestly, Mikey Way did not mind. In fact, the fifteen year old still found himself shell-shocked by the circumstances and the fact that everything hadn't completely crumbled into shit yet, which was always good.

Anyway, Mikey was kind of far more focused on just how cute Pete looked when he actually made an effort, and was even more flattered and astonished by the simple fact that Pete had actually made an effort, and for _him_.

It was kind of cute or whatever.

At the very least, Gerard wasn't here to see him blush and never shut up about it for years afterwards.

He highly suspected that Frank and Gerard were doing much the same in Mikey's own house, except with far more making out and well, _other things_ than the two awkward little emos were doing right now.

Mikey was kind of nervous, to say the least.

Surely kissing Pete Wentz shouldn't be any different to kissing a girl, but the way his heart was thumping in his chest, and the way his head was spinning begged to differ. Perhaps this just mattered a fucking hell of a lot more, and well, Mikey just didn't quite know what to make of that at all.

"Mikey?" The fifteen year old jumped, his head colliding straight with the wall of Pete Wentz's living room, and the sixteen year old most certainly did not hesitate in doubling over with laughter. 

"Stop laughing at me, you _asshole_." Mikey groaned, clutching the back of his head in over exaggerated pain. " _Stop_!" He repeated with a great deal of over annunciation, as Pete continued to giggle like the fucking little shit he was. " _What_?"

"Oh, I was-" Pete paused for a moment, just to contain his fucking _hysterical_ laughter. "I just- I was going to ask you if you were even listening to a single word I was saying, but- but I think I know the answer to that now."

"You're an asshole." Mikey scowled, pouting a little, and causing Pete's heart to do stupid little somersaults as he did so. 

"Shut up." Pete sat up from where he was sort of half slouched, half lying down at the end of the sofa. "I know you don't mean it." He added with a grin, because goddamn, Pete just _knew_ he was right. 

"I really mean it." Mikey rolled his eyes, continuing to scowl as Pete shuffled closer to him, and eventually did that fucking yawn and put your arm around them gesture; Mikey was not impressed. "You're a fucking idiot."

"Stop being so horrible to me, Mikey Way, I might break up with you, you know." And there was no way in hell that Pete would ever even consider it, at least not for the time being, but he was more than pretend to tease Mikey with it.

"Okay then, go ahead." Mikey turned to face the sixteen year old, and ending up kind of half sat on Pete's lap as he did so. "Break up with me or are you all talk?"

"I'm not all talk, if you know what I mean." Pete winked at Mikey in quite possibly the most cringe worthy manner known to mankind.

"What do you mean, Peter?" Mikey raised his eyebrows, kind of curious as to just what shit Pete would come out with in response to this.

"Science proves that the human body is like seventy fucking percent water, and therefore I can't be _all_ talk." Needless to say, Mikey wasn't impressed. "I've also got a pretty big dick too."

"Oh lovely." Mikey stared at the fucking idiot sat in front of him with very little to say for himself.

"Do you not believe me?" Pete asked, almost offended, and well, considering the fact that it was _Pete_ , Mikey wouldn’t have been all that surprised if he genuinely was offended. "I can prove it to you, if I must."

"Okay, I believe you." Mikey sighed out, panicking a little, because this was like a goddamn homosexuality overload, and well, he was barely even comfortable with his bisexuality at this point.

"You _don't_ want to see my dick, Mikeyway?" And Mikey wouldn't have been wrong to say that was _genuine_ confusion upon Pete's face. "You're like a fucking _straight_ boy, come on now, suck me off?"

"Not today." Mikey shook his head, leaning back against the sofa with a small smile. "I'll kiss you, though."

"I bloody well hope so!" Pete exclaimed, moving so he was practically in Mikey's lap, and with his hands in the younger boy's hair. "I hate you, Mikeyway."

"I hate you too-" Mikey began, only of course, Pete had to silence him with his lips upon Mikey's before the fifteen year old could even fathom continuing.

"Do you _really_?" Pete pulled away slightly, whispering the words against Mikey's lips, as he tangled his fingers into the younger boy's hair. "Look me in the eye and tell me you hate me." Pete smirked, pulling Mikey a little by his hair to meet Pete's gaze.

"I-" Mikey began, but Pete wasn't having any of it, with his lips on Mikey's once again, and well, Mikey was in absolutely _no_ position to complain here, and especially not when he was having so much _fun_ kissing Pete Wentz, because _okay_ , who _wouldn't_?

"Maybe I don't hate you." Mikey pulled away from Pete, albeit just a little reluctantly. "Just maybe." He pushed a strand of Pete's hair behind his ear. "Your fringe is always in your eyes, you know?"

"Yeah, you just can't handle my emo game, Mikeyway." Pete smirked to himself, moving so he was stretched out across the length of the sofa with his head in Mikey's lap, and totally not with his head rubbing more than necessary against his crotch, and well, it was kind of Mikey's fault for wearing what Pete suspected to be the fucking _tightest_ jeans in the whole damn world. "Look at my fucking eyeliner, though."

"Oh, it's _eyeliner_ , is it?" Mikey faked astonishment as he attempted to push Pete's fringe away from his eyes. "I thought you just always had a black eye, because I can't even see both of your eyes for the most part anyway, and I mean, you're a total ass, so I wouldn't be all that surprised that someone wants to punch you in the face on a weekly basis or whatever."

"You're literally the meanest person in the world." And Pete didn't even reckon he was exaggerating here.

"What? Even meaner than the kid punching you in the eye everyday?"

"Fuck you, Mikeyway, _fuck you_."

"Maybe later."

-

William Beckett had made it sound easy.

It wasn't.

And Frank knew that like he knew that Gerard Way was the cutest motherfucker in the whole damn world.

And he knew _that_ like he knew that his insides were absolutely melting as he was turning into nothing more than a soppy little romantic at this point, but still, he reckoned Gerard was worth that.

And of course, Gerard was worth _this_ , whatever this was: coming clean and hanging yourself out there for the lions, but, Frank still couldn't quite bring himself to do it.

He didn't have the guts, or something predictable like that, and he fucking knew it.

He considered calling Bill and asking him for some sort of advice here, but Frank came to a swift conclusion that if he actually called the guy about this, then he'd kind of _force_ himself into doing this, because quite honestly, Frank didn't really want to, and well, he could have very easily just _forgotten_ , couldn't he?

Well with the scale of situation, perhaps not, but if Bill could forget about it and not text him about it every few seconds, then so could Frank, and Frank could just continue on with his life with ease, but he _couldn't_ , because this was making an awful habit of haunting his head like some sort of pissed off, homosexual ghost, and that wasn't particularly something that Frank found himself appreciating all that much.

And quite frankly, William Beckett could go fuck himself, or something like that.

Whatever, Frank didn't particularly care, and he was doing a relatively good job of avoiding Bert McCracken and bunking off school with very little consequences. Of course, Gerard had texted him a few times about how pissed off they were, and then something weird about how Bert wasn't all that bad, which Frank just really didn't want to think about.

Lindsey had called him an hour later, but Frank knew she was going to end up lecturing him or something of the like, so he turned his cellphone off for a few minutes then.

It was simple, and Frank was content, or at least, he was doing a wonderful job when it came to making himself out to be content, as he sat in the same smoking spot he'd met William Beckett in, with just another cigarette between his fingers, because seemed as if Frank's only goal in life was acquiring lung cancer.

He didn't particularly care though, and if he could smoke his troubles away, then he was just prepared to risk smoking his lungs away in the process too.

At least he had the privilege of solitude this time, not that Bill's company wasn't just a little pleasant, but he much preferred his own company, and especially when he found himself hiding away here due to his own failure to do something the aforementioned Bill Beckett had told him to.

Whatever, the guy wasn't the boss of him, but deep down, Frank just _knew_ that it was the best thing to do, and perhaps maybe for the first time, Lindsey would stop glaring at him when she didn't think he could see if he actually grew the balls to come out, even if just for Gerard's sake.

Lindsey Ballato was one of those people that Frank just couldn't quite put his finger on; it wasn't that she was particularly two faced or anything, she was nice for the most part, and she seemed to have her head in the right place, even if that was sometimes between Alicia's legs, but it was still the right place, the right time, but there was just always _something_ , just something off and something that unnerved Frank a little.

And this was of course made worse by the fact that this something was a something that only Frank ever seemed to notice; he was either going insane, or God personally despised him. Frank didn't quite know which one of the two was the better option there, however he didn't find himself with much of an opportunity to fret over it for too long, before he felt the space in grass beside him filling.

And this time, it _wasn't_ William Beckett.

"Gerard's far nicer than you, Frankie." And well, to say the least, when Frank found himself face to face with Bert McCracken, he almost had a heart attack. "It's cool, we're in a park anyway, there aren't any walls to throw any of us into- look, I'm not even stoned today, I'm sober, because this is probably an important conversation, see I'm not such a jerk as you make me out to be."

"I think you are." Frank raised his eyebrows, watching Bert's every move with caution as he lit his own cigarette before continuing to speak.

"Sure you do." He laughed it off, turning to face Frank with a look of motherfucking _amusement_ , "look, Frankie, we had some beef, okay? And you're just making me out to be your mortal enemy, anyway, I had a couple of chats to Gerard, and we're all good-"

" _Gerard_? Did I fucking say you could talk to _Gerard_?" And if you could pinpoint it, that was the _exact_ moment that Frank lost all his fucking chill.

"They're a person, not just exclusively ' _yours'_." Bert shrugged it off, taking a drag of his cigarette before taking the liberty of continuing. "Gerard's much nicer and much more fucking rational than you are, you know, look they told me about you two, so that's a thing, okay, and you're closeted as fuck, which is also okay, if not a bit of a wimpy move, but okay, look, I just didn't expect 'faggot' to strike such a chord in you, okay, and I was like baked as fuck, and well, you nearly breaking my spine wasn't exactly something I was thankful for, but we used to be like best friends, didn't we, Frankie? Don't you remember that, what happened?"

" _Gerard_." And they both knew it was true.

Frank found his gaze fixated upon the ground, kicking the dirt with the toe of his converse, as he looked back over the past few moments and considered whether Gerard fucking Way was really worth all this mess, because within moments, he found himself thrown back to that rainy afternoon, and Gerard in a dress, and catcalling, and Bert being his best fucking friend in the world.

"I'm not exactly a fucking expert, or like, I don't know, but like I'm going to try and accept you like this, but come on, we both know that you've changed in a way that neither of us could ever account for, but I think we should give this friendship another try, because Gerard is pretty damn cute, but they're not worth _everything_."

"Sometimes I think they are." Frank admitted, blushing a little. "But that's just love or something, I don't know, anyway look, Bert, I don't know if this is really going to work, you were so nice, but now you're such an _asshole_ : you're the one who's changed here, not me."

Bert just plain fucking laughed that off. "You used to not care about anyone's feelings, you fucked and used girls like they were nothing, you were a whore, you were a bigger _asshole_ than me, you did more drugs than me, and you most definitely made fun of the 'art fag' at school, and well, now you're like a completely different person: you care too much, everything is about goddamn _Gerard_ , and you're _nice_ to people for the hell of it, and well, I'm the fucking same, Frank, look at me, I'm still a shitty stoner who doesn't get laid as much as you and is totally going to fail all of my exams."

"Oh... _yeah_..." Frank exhaled loudly, just sitting there and thinking for a moment. "I kind of, I don't know, it's weird, but that old me, that just doesn't feel like me anymore - that _isn't_ me anymore."

"I get that, sure, but look, let's just give this friendship another try, look, I just really can't put up with being slammed into walls on such a regular basis?"

"Lindsey would personally assassinate me."

"And since when did Lindsey become your fucking mum?"

"Okay, you're right."

And Frank smiled like an idiot, as he made what he didn't quite yet know to be quite possibly the worst decision of his life, as he abandoned all plans made prior to spend the whole day with his newfound old friend.

-

Alicia had taken at least forty selfies in the past two minutes, and all on Gerard's phone, and all as they'd been to the toilet, because yes, that was exactly what friends were for.

She was supposed to be meeting Lindsey in like twenty minutes, but Gerard was having something close to a mental breakdown, and well, perhaps that was far more important than whatever the hell Lindsey had waned to see her for.

She reckoned the dumb selfies would at least cheer them up a bit.

They didn't.

Gerard returned from the bathroom a minute or so later, their head in their hands, but it was still evident that they'd been crying

"Tell me what's wrong." It was more of a demand than a question, but it was necessary in the circumstances as Gerard made their way over to the bed, taking a seat beside Alicia, and beginning to sob into her shoulder.

"I fucking _hate_ this." They choked out, grabbing Alicia's hand for comfort, like seriously, it was _comfort_ , Gerard liked _boys_ , okay?

"What?"

" _Me_ , fucking _me_ , whoever the fuck that is, like, fuck I- I just... sometimes I feel like coming out as non binary was the best decision of my life, sometimes I feel like it was the _worst_ , because I... I don't know, sometimes it just feels like too much, and sometimes it just feels like I don't fit anything, _ever_ , I just... I can't ever be _normal_ , and it's like I- my mum _still_ doesn't know, I'm too scared to tell her and that's my fault, and she still calls me 'he', and I'm somewhat just used to it by now, but today, no, today I just, I could _not_ deal with that, and I just- I- I feel fucking _broken_ , you know what I mean- no, no you don't how could you possibly, but... I'm so fucking _scared_ , and I don't even know what of, I just think maybe I'm scared of _myself_."

Alicia was inexperienced with this, to say the least, and found herself at an utter loss for what to say, however she definitely knew that hugging Gerard and pulling them close against her chest had to help somehow.

"Look, Gerard, you're not _broken_ , you, you're just you, and you don't have to be 'normal' or 'fit' or anything." She whispered into their side, hugging them tighter than before, but still taking care not to suffocate her best friend, because well that would be a bit awkward, to say the least. "Do you want to try telling your mum?"

"I can't- I... I mean she won't hate me, I just I know that, she won't _understand_ and she'll make a fuss and she'll make things harder than they are, and I've finally just kind of accepted myself as this, but then, no that gets fucked up, and- you know what's fucking _stupid_? I could tell _Bert McCracken_ , but not my _mother_."

"Bert?" That had taken Alicia by surprise, to say the least.

"Yeah, I... I told him that I use they/them pronouns, and I guess with Bert, he's always just too stoned to give a fuck, but he started using them, and I don't know... Bert's not that bad as people make him out to be, I think, well, at least Frank seems to make him into the antichrist, and I don't know if he's just nicer to me or something, but I don't see that at all, he's just a guy, just a guy who's uneducated about these things and pissed off because some kid he used to know nearly broke his spine, and well... I hate to say, but it's not really his fault."

"So it's _Frank's_ fault?" Alicia raised her eyebrows, having really not expected that at all.

"No- yes- no, kind of yes, fuck- sort of maybe- I... _yes_ , kind of, but don't fucking tell him, he just overreacted and he's too self-conscious and sensitive and this fucking ego of his... he just cares far too much what people think, and especially when they're the kind of people who don't care about him." Gerard paused for a moment. "I love him, but I _hate_ that."

"You know I have an idea?"

"Yeah?"

"How about you get Mikey to tell your mum, how about when you're out, so they can fucking argue and explain it and Mikey can get it all sorted so that it's just normal when you come back or whatever?"

"You know what? You're almost better than me at coming up with amazing and potentially life ruining ideas?" Gerard grinned, hugging Alicia like she was the best damn person in the world, and well, right now, she kind of was.

-

And it started with Jamia Nestor being _nice_ , and being _nice_ without any ulterior motive, and being _nice_ without any ulterior motive to people other than Frank Iero.

And that was exactly how Lindsey Ballato knew the whole world was falling apart, because Jamia Nestor had just let her bum _three_ cigarettes, and well, that was goddamn unheard of, not that Lindsey was complaining, of course.

"Are you sure you don't have a thing for me?" Lindsey raised an eyebrow as she lit the third cigarette; the two had been waiting for Frank and Alicia to arrive at the park for at least fifteen minutes now, and well, impatience had turned into a useful opportunity to work on the steady and constant destruction of their lungs.

"I'm straight." Jamia reminded her, and _herself_.

"Still, that hardly means anything, come on, _Frank_ thought he was straight." Lindsey giggled, taking a drag of her cigarette, and trying her best not to cough her motherfucking lungs up as she did so.

"Yeah, well, Frank never actually thought much of girls and any kind of romantic involvement with them, whereas, I've dated boys and liked it, so-"

"You don't know for _sure_ that you're not bisexual until you've at least tried being with girls, you know?" Lindsey smirked to herself, wondering just how far she could get Jamia to go with this.

"Okay, I'll do some experimentation and let you know when I've reached a sound conclusion." Jamia rolled her eyes, and lighting another cigarette, because she definitely needed it at this point.

"Who with?"

"Not _you_ , of course, you have a _girlfriend_ , Lindsey, _remember_?" Jamia shook her head in disbelief as Lindsey continued to only laugh in response.

"Oh shut up, I was just joking, you know that, don't you?" Lindsey met Jamia's eyes with a increased sincerity. "We'd never date, you know? You're too straight for one, and for two, you aren't putting nearly as much effort in as Alicia has, like bloody hell, she endured a meaningful conversation with _Mikey Way_ for this, like can you even imagine that kind of torture?"

Jamia laughed it off, shaking her head. "No, I can't; I've never actually had any kind of interaction with Mikey Way for that matter."

"You really don't know how lucky you are." Lindsey shook her head firmly, internally disgusted by even the notion of speaking to Mikey Way. "Sure, Mikey's nice enough to Gerard, but well... it's like _Gerard_ , and that's it, like he's a total dick to anyone that isn't family."

"You seem to hate everyone Gerard loves." Jamia noted, her eyebrows raised a little. "Just saying. You sure you don't have some sort of ulterior motive here, like some mindfuck backstory that no one knows about yet?"

"I'm pretty damn sure." Lindsey rolled her eyes, pausing for a second as she took a somewhat extended drag of cigarette, and regardless of the logistics of it, it was most certainly something her lungs wouldn't thank her for. "But, I guess, Gerard just has a habit of putting up with shitty people for no reason - they're too nice, or something, I mean... well, I guess those people tend to be nice to them, but like, I don't know, Gerard's fucking precious, I can understand why you'd want to keep them to yourself, but... come on, _man_ , I've been Gerard's best friend for years now."

"I'm sensing some jealousy here." Jamia raised her eyebrows, turning her body to full face Lindsey at this point.

"I'm sensing the urge to punch you in the face here." Lindsey countered, finishing her cigarette, and watching as Jamia wordlessly passed her another one. "Okay, if you keep giving me free smokes like this, then perhaps not."

Jamia smiled, and Lindsey couldn't help but admit that it was a damn _cute_ smile. "See, I am nice. Now come on, tell me more about this mess, and please tell me that you don't have jealousy issues regarding Alicia too."

"I _kind_ of do... I mean... not as much, but... I don't know - I just can't help it, or at least that's what I tell myself to ensure I feel better about being such a shitty person."

"You're not a shitty person." Jamia's response was instant and oddly sincere, which caught Lindsey by surprise, to say the least.

"Whatever you say." Lindsey took another drag of her cigarette. "I just, Alicia's, well, Alicia has a lot of friends and a lot of ex- _boyfriends_ and well, I mean, I tend to have this habit of being really bitchy to everyone and just pushing them away, and there's like _Gerard_ , and _Alicia,_ and _you,_ and that's kind of it, but Gerard has Frank, and you have him too, and I guess, I'm just clinging extra tight to Alicia right now _._ "

"She wouldn't cheat on you, if that's what you're worried about." Jamia reassured her, with a step closer to her and the most meaningful smile Lindsey reckoned she'd ever seen.

"And how would _you_ know?" Lindsey scoffed, stepping closer so that the two were barely inches apart. "You don't even know her- in fact, you barely even know _me_."

"But still you tell me everything you don't tell other people." And Jamia had a damn good point, and Lindsey was sinking in the ocean she'd set out to swim in.

"You're a good listener, and you give me free cigarettes - it's just that, I guess." Lindsey shrugged it off, leaning back against the wall they were smoking against and exhaling loudly.

"So if I stopped giving you free cigarettes you'd just fuck off right now?" Jamia raised her eyebrows at that.

"No, no it's not- I'm just... it came out wrong... I'm just worried about Alicia, like where even are _they_?"

"I don't know." Jamia sighed out, pausing for a moment. "Do you still seriously think she'd cheat on you?"

"No, I never thought that. It's me I'm worried about."

And Lindsey met Jamia's eyes once more.

-


	27. If Jamia Had To Compare His Dick To A Fruit...

"Do you have anything to say for yourself at all?"

And Lindsey didn't, and Alicia wasn't good at being angry, and Jamia was the worst third wheel known to mankind, but still, this was happening, and there was very little escape from reality at this point.

Because although it hadn't exactly been a full scale Romeo and Juliet esque kind of tragedy, guilt had seeped in and twisted and corrupted the whole damn world, and perhaps that was just enough to destroy everything.

Or perhaps it wasn't, but at this point, none of three particularly wanted to find out all that much.

It was taking chances, and it was taking them too far, and it was the fallout, and it was the screaming inside your head, and it was surrender of sorts; it was an awkward smile, it was an apology not quite verbalised, an attempt not quite good enough, and on Alicia's part, patience not quite strong enough.

And Jamia was still clinging to the belief that she was straight, even after Alicia had finally shown up to meet them, and had found her girlfriend kissing a 'straight girl', and Jamia was a _straight_ girl, seriously, but this kind of situation most certainly didn't paint her to be so.

"Lindsey, fucking say _something_... anything, _please_." She was distraught, and confused, and feelings were nothing but mutual as Lindsey continued to kick the dirt with the toe of her shoe, perhaps working on digging herself a tunnel across the world as a way out of here, but putting hope into that was just about as logic as this mess itself, and she knew that.

"I kissed her, there you go."

And they both knew that was exactly _all_ they were getting from Lindsey from now on.

"Yeah, I fucking got that." Alicia rolled her eyes, wishing that she was just back with Gee, wishing that she'd never even come, in fact, and where the fuck was Frank in all of this, and for the most part, Alicia reckoned that perhaps she didn't even want to know.

"I'm straight." Jamia added, not that it counted for much under the circumstances, and especially when Alicia already wanted to slap her across the face as much as she did.

"Yeah, fucking 'straight' enough to kiss a girl. Who are you, Katy fucking Perry? Did you _like_ it? Or is this the no homo phase, because come on, fuck off, and leave _my_ girlfriend alone, how about that for a fucking idea, huh?"

Alicia had never really had the chance to form much of an opinion on Jamia, but she reckoned now was her chance, and she reckoned that in terms of chances, Jamia had just about destroyed hers.

Alicia glanced again at her girlfriend, or perhaps _ex_ at this point, she didn't know, and it was killing her, even if she couldn't quite bring herself to admit that it was.

"Lindsey, fucking _come on_ -" She reached out for her girlfriend's hand, glaring at Jamia a little as she did so. "Let's just go, let's just forget about this, forget about _her_ , let's just go."

"No." Lindsey was defiant, and red cheeked, and not looking at either girl, because at this point, she had fucked up, and she knew it. "Because it's not Jamia's fault, it's _mine_."

"Alright then, go on, go fucking marry the straight girl, yeah, go fucking do that, Lindsey, what a fucking _great_ idea, don't you think?"

They'd both lost it at this point, and Alicia knew she was seconds, moments, away from crying, and if there was anything in the world she could possibly hate more than this situation itself, it was Lindsey and Jamia seeing her _cry_ in this situation, because Alicia didn't quite know who she was yet, but most definitely didn't want to be the one who cried, the fucking wimp, the mess, the _ex-girlfriend_ , someone Lindsey Ballato once knew, but there was very little she could do about that now.

"Lindsey, fucking- _call me_... please. Promise me you'll do that, just later maybe, just whenever, even if it's when you're fucking thirty years old, just call me, will you?" And with that, Alicia bit her lip, attempting to hold the tears in as she turned and left on a beeline home and to her bedroom and to an hour long phone call with Gee before Lindsey could get in there first.

And Alicia hated to think of Gee as a competition or a _fucking_ commodity, but Lindsey could fucking twist any situation to make herself look like the motherfucking second coming of Jesus Christ himself, and Alicia both loved that and hated it.

-

Lindsey and Jamia still stood there in silence, and it was a kiss her or slap her kind of situation, and hey, maybe Frank would possibly turn up this time, and they could run through the same mess of an argument again, but, no, Frank did never and would never turn up, and Bert McCracken did a pretty good job of ensuring so.

"I'm not straight." Jamia said after what felt like hours.

A smile tugged at the corners of Lindsey's lips. "I know."

"I think maybe you turned me gay." She blushed a little, giggling like a small child.

"No, no I didn't - that's not how it fucking works, Jamia." Lindsey lit another cigarette, because at this point, she badly fucking needed one, and there was no denying that. "You're this way from the very fucking moment you're born, although, you may not fully realise it for a long time, it's there deep down, and you're bisexual, I'd say, not _gay_. You've dated guys, if you want to date people of your own gender and people of a different gender, then that's bisexual, okay?"

"Okay." Jamia smiled. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Ruining your relationship." Jamia pointed out the blatantly obvious.

Lindsey smiled to herself, finding herself not quite giving as much of a fuck as she really should have done, and well, that was weird all round, but there was very little she could do about it. It was just a _thing_ , after all, and it was bound to pass, wasn't it? Sure Lindsey cared for Alicia, but with the mess her head was in right now, she was in no fucking state to be trusted with making any kind of decision whatsoever, but still, she did.

"Oh, yeah, _that_." She managed after a moment, holding her cigarette between too fingers in a lose, kind of cared for, yet careless manner.

Lindsey turned to Jamia once more.

" _I'm_ sorry." She corrected herself, because that was how things were going to be.

Jamia smiled.

And Lindsey did too.

-

Lindsey's life fucking sucked right now, to say the least, and goddamn, everything seemed to act as the same kind of fucking reminder: happy couples everywhere, and Jamia fucking Nestor everywhere, because she couldn't get her out of her head, and she couldn't get Alicia in there, and she was falling apart, to say the least, and she _knew_ that Frank was going to be with Gerard just at the very end of this motherfucking corridor, and she _knew_ that Jamia would be with Frank.

And with Jamia's presence, she doubted that Alicia would even be there, and then she'd have to fucking _hunt her down_ just to try her hand at some sort of shitty apology, because she was sorry and this just wasn't working, but she wanted to try, and holy fuck, Lindsey needed to stop and smirk at the Bert McCracken shaped dent in the wall before continuing.

Bert McCracken always made her feel better- well not Bert himself, but more so the frequent reminders of the truly _unfortunate_ accidents that had befallen him.

Because there was no denying the fact that Bert getting thrown into a wall was more than just a little amusing.

However, as she did eventually near the usual spot, she came to note that Jamia wasn't there, but Bert motherfucking McCracken, and well, she found herself stood there, staring, fucking _wide eyed_ and like some sort deer in the headlights, or just a girl who could _not_ be bothered to put up with that kind of asshole so early in the morning, and especially when she didn't even fucking have to.

"Uhm..." She approached the three with raised eyebrows. "What's _he_ doing here?"

"Lindsey, honestly, things just went a little out of proportion, he's a nice guy really." And quite honestly, never thought she'd see the day when Gerard Way was standing up for Bert McCracken, but as things happened, she did, and to say the least, she wasn't happy about it.

"Yeah, I find that fucking hard to believe, you know?" She snapped, ignoring Gerard completely, and turning to Frank, who nodded in support of Gerard's argument. "Oh for fuck's sake, Frank, you threw this guy into a motherfucking _wall_ -"

"And I used to think Gerard was pathetic - people fucking change." He shrugged her comment off and turned back to Bert, who couldn't help but feel a little awkward under Lindsey's overly judgemental gaze.

"What? Bert changed? Or did _you_?" Lindsey remained apprehensive like it was what she was born to do, not having even granted Bert the gift of one fucking glance at him yet.

"We've both changed, of course we have, people fucking _do_." And Bert changed that, as he chose to speak up for the first time, having chosen a good day not to immediately get stoned before even arriving at school, because otherwise, he reckoned he would have come out with something far less comprehendible.

"The fact that you're an asshole still stands." Lindsey wasn't out of touch with bitterness, to say the least.

"And the fact that you're a stubborn bitch remains the same too." He retorted, and well, if you were ready to start an argument with Lindsey Ballato, you were ready to risk your goddamn life.

"I'm not a bitch, though."

"Alicia says different," Frank piped up, and well, with the state that Lindsey was already in, it probably wasn't the best of ideas, especially considering the fact that she could hardly think less of Frank at this point, "just saying - it's what she said, isn't it, Gerard?"

And Gerard hated to be dragged into this, because Lindsey was like a big sister to them, but Alicia had said it, and thank god she'd fucked off before Lindsey had turned up. "She did, she left a few minutes ago, but she said."

"She said you kissed Jamia." Frank continued, like he had a death wish or something, but still, he was speaking nothing more than the truth. "Jamia said you kissed her too. Kind of hypocritical of you to point out Bert's flaws, don't you think? At least he's trying, at least he's apologised, you haven't."

"Fucking when did I become public enemy number one?" Lindsey exclaimed, slamming her fist against her locker, just inches away from Bert, and well, Bert stepped back after that, to say the least, because Bert maybe a bit of an idiot, but he wasn't stupid, and he didn’t want to imagine snorting cocaine with a busted up nose, because you know, priorities?

But there was this rug in his bathroom that smelled suspiciously of milk, and well, if he couldn't smell that every time he took a shit, it certainly would be for the better.

"When you cheated on your girlfriend, I think." Bert added, expression completely fucking neutral, which Lindsey reckoned pissed her off more than if he had been grinning like some fucking idiot. "But I'm not exactly one hundred percent caught up with the situation, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but Alicia was totally way nicer to me than you're being, so I'm totally far more inclined to believe her."

And at that point, Lindsey did not fucking hesitate to punch him, leaving Bert falling back into his best friend, the wall, with the impact, and Lindsey an opportunity to grab Gerard and pull them away and down the corridor for a word in private.

"Seriously, Gerard, what the fuck has she said, and why does everyone hate me? Do _you_ hate me?" Lindsey's tone grew softer: a desperate kind of plead at this point, because things were different when it was just Gerard and she didn't have to pretend to be tough anymore.

"Of course I don't hate you, Lindsey, I could never hate you, but yeah, you were kind of horrible to Alicia, I mean, I haven't heard your side of the story, I haven't even heard Jamia's, just a few extracts from what Frank's told me, but you shouldn't cheat on anyone ever-"

"I know, I know." Lindsey sighed out, leaning back against Bert McCracken's best friend (the wall). "But it was just- I didn't mean to, I just... Jamia's very good at listening and she's very good at understanding things I can't tell you or Alicia, and I really needed someone to talk to about those things."

"What can't you tell me? I tell you _everything_ , Lindsey, I thought that's what best friends do..." Gerard trailed off, biting their lip a little as they did so.

"Things about Frank mostly, because you love him, and you don't want to hear me ranting about how he annoys me at times, you just don't okay?" Lindsey sighed, shaking her head, because she should have never even began to explain. "Look, I... Jamia is just willing to listen and understand everything."

Gerard remained silent for a moment, before nodding slowly, "okay... I'm not sure how that led to you kissing her, but please, just apologise to Alicia, try and explain. She's gonna be stubborn about it, but just do it, I promise, she wants to make this work - she _loves_ you-"

"I know."

"No, like... _loves you_ loves you. For serious."

" _Fuck_."

"I know."

-

Jamia was quite easily in as much of a mess as Lindsey was, but in an entirely different way, with very little blame pinned on her, even not the blame she deserved, because it was her fault too: after all, it wasn't like Lindsey could cheat on Alicia with herself, could she?

She reckoned Alicia still wanted to shoot her down, though, so at least she wasn't getting away entirely unscathed, not that there was really anything she could do about it, though.

She'd spoken to Frank about it at length, and still, she didn't feel like he even really cared. Sure, Frank was her best friend, but Frank's mind was a solar system, and the sun was Gerard Way themself, and _everyone_ knew that, but still Jamia had tried, and Frank didn't seem fussed, he seemed somewhat sympathetic, but he didn't seem at all prepared to go out of his way to help her with the mess that _Lindsey_ had gotten her into.

Sure, Frank had sided with her, secretly and almost instantly, but that was simply due to the fact that Frank and Lindsey weren't on the best terms, in fact, Gerard was like the glue between them, and Jamia just wondered when everything was going to fall apart.

Perhaps it already had, perhaps this was the beginning: perhaps this was the fallout, perhaps this was the ending and the start of something new.

It was too early to tell yet, but Jamia knew that wherever Gerard was, Frank would stand beside him; it was more pathetic than romantic by this point, but Jamia had to respect just how much he cared from Gerard, it was dedication, to sugar-coat it, and it was obsession if she didn’t bother.

Still, Jamia felt herself a little perplexed by the fact that Gerard had continued to share such a mutual like of Frank all this time, because Jamia knew Frank, and Jamia knew Frank was her best friend, but Jamia knew that Frank Iero was sure enough a nice guy, but nowhere near the kind of God Gerard treated him like.

Perhaps it was just a matter of perspective, perhaps she could just never see Frank in that way, or perhaps, there was something deeper between Gerard and Frank that no one could even attempt to know nor understand. Soulmates, or something like that... not that Jamia particularly believed in, nor cared for things of such a nature, but sure enough, if soul mates did exist, it was Gerard and Frank, and without a moment's thought.

Well, it had to be that, because it certainly wasn't Frank's dick; Jamia had seen it, and it was really anything _but_ impressive. If she had to compare it to a fruit, Frank Iero's dick would be a grape, because it was small and shit (and slightly green but you weren't supposed to talk about that), much like Frank himself, but whatever.

She wondered if Alicia and Lindsey were anything near soulmates, and then she wondered if she'd fucked that up for them now. She put her mind at rest with the consolation that she simply didn't believe in soulmates, and perhaps that was enough, but it wasn't, but it _certainly_ was enough to distract her enough to send her walking straight into another person.

"Fuck- I-... sorry." Jamia pulled away, stumbling and blushing like the embodiment of hell itself, because that was certainly her heart right now, and then everything, and quite literally _everything_ changed when she looked up and met the gaze of the stranger she'd collided into the chest of.

And by chest... _boobs_ , and to put it bluntly, Jamia's lesbian senses were tingling.

"It's fine, I'm fine." The girl smiled, playing with her dark brown hair a little as she did so, and it wasn't the cutest thing Jamia had ever seen, and she wasn't dying inside, and she wasn't even _gay_ , like no homo, come on, no homo, oh fuck _everything_.

"I'm Jamia, hey." She continued to smile like an idiot, because walking straight, well _gay,_ into a girl's chest was a perfect pick up line and first impression.

"I'm Kitty, well, that's not my _real_ name, but it's what everyone calls me." She explained, blushing a little as she spoke, and Jamia reckoned that she was the cutest thing since cats, and well, her name was _Kitty_ and Jamia did _love_ pussy.

"That's cute." Jamia spoke without thinking, but at least she wasn't directly staring at her boobs, so she was doing pretty good so far, well she was doing better than Mikey Way had ever done in his life, and somehow he'd dated Alicia for several months, not that anyone spoke of the 'wretched heterosexual times' anymore, but still, it had happened.

"You're cute." Kitty countered, homosexuality in full swing, and this was quite easily the best thing that had ever happened to Jamia, and life fucking sucked because it was so not social acceptable to just make the fuck out with her right now.

Jamia blushed, biting her bottom lip a little, "you're cuter." And she fucking meant it, like seriously, she'd fight her on it, like she'd _fight_ her, that wasn't even a euphemism or whatever, she would pull a Frank Iero and shove her into a wall until she admitted it, and well, that was doing an even worse job of not sounding like a euphemism, but Jamia was deadly fucking serious, and totally blushing like motherfucking hell.

"You should give me your number, you know, because I've totally got to go, but I want to see your cute face again." And before Jamia knew what she was doing, she was pulling a marker pen from her pocket, and scribbling her phone number down across Kitty's forearm.

"Call me, or whatever, please." Jamia stepped, away still staring and grinning at Kitty like an idiot as she rolled her sleeve down over the phone number.

"I will, of course, I will, how could I forget about someone as cute as you?" And with that, Kitty was walking off, and Jamia was blushing so hard she needed to dig her own grave right here and right now - no questions asked.

But, this was fucking amazing, and Jamia was dying, and suddenly, within mere seconds, Lindsey Ballato was a thing of the past, a distant kind of memory or something like that - she still mattered, in a way, but she mattered because she had to, and not because Jamia really _wanted_ her to.

Whereas Jamia wanted Kitty to matter more than she'd ever wanted anything in the whole damn world.

And this was day one, and she didn't know what it meant at all, but if she believed in them, and if she was lucky, this was soulmates, day one.

-

"I don't know, Mikey, I really don't know."

The Way siblings were sat on edge in the living room; Mikey with his knees pulled up to his chest, and Gerard leaning against him.

"It'll be fine, you know, mum was fine with you liking dudes, so I don't see how this should be any different." Mikey reassured Gerard, running his hand through their hair a little. 

The two were sat at home, anxiously awaiting their mother's arrival home, because today was the day that Gerard finally reckoned they had the courage to tell their mother about their gender, or well, the courage to let Mikey do it for them.

"You don't know what it's like, though, Mikey, come on, you _don't_." Gerard let out a sigh, causing Mikey to pause momentarily, thinking something over as he ran it through his mind.

"What would you think of me telling her about me and Pete at the same?" Mikey asked after a moment, taking Gerard by surprise.

"She'd probably die on the spot, oh god, do you remember last time?" Gerard exclaimed, their face breaking into a smile, because the time when Gerard had originally came out to their mother, well, that had been _interesting_ , to say the least.

"Yeah, but it'd stop her solely focusing on your gender, if that's what you're worried about, because then she has me to worry about as well, and she's going to get all teary, and come on, Gerard, she's not going to be weird about it - you're just scared and you're making up excuses for the sake of it."

" _Fuck_." Gerard cursed, pulling away from Mikey a little. "How do you just _always_ know?"

"I'm your brother, silly, _of course_ I always know." Mikey giggled, grinning a little, and the two shared a smile for a moment, before Gerard's heart fell to the bottom of their chest at the sound of keys in the door.

"She's _home_." 

"Goddamn it, Gerard, she's your _mother_ , not the fucking wicked witch of the west, look come on, it'll be fine - I _promise_ you." And Mikey did, because there was nothing he wanted less in the world than to see Gerard hurt.

"Oh, you two are actually being both civil and social for once?" Mrs Way approached the two with surprise after locking the front door behind her, and peering her head into the living room.

"Yeah," Mikey glanced at Gerard, who remained deadly silent and something close to petrified, and came to the swift conclusion that he was going to have to do practically _all_ the talking. "Can we talk to you about something?"

"Yeah, of course." She smiled, nodding as she put the bags full of groceries down.

"No, mum, like, _talk_ to you... this is something you might want to sit down for." Mikey blushed a little at that, because okay, he was nervous too, just perhaps a little better at hiding it.

Mrs Way took off her coat and made her way to the armchair, taking a seat and turning to her children, her gaze hovering over Gerard's curled up form for a moment too long.

"Gerard, are you, are you okay, honey?" She asked, watching as the seventeen year old, moved a little so their face was more visible.

"Yeah, I... it's... this thing... I- I-..." Gerard's face fell into another horrifying blush. "Mikey, can you... I... I'm-"

"You want me to tell her?" Mikey asked, meeting Gerard's gaze with concern for them.

Gerard nodded.

"Well, okay, mum, this might take a bit of explaining, but, Gerard's non-binary, which basically means they don't identify with either male or female genders, and fit somewhere else on the gender spectrum. So, like, Gerard prefers that people call them they or them instead of he or him. And they aren't a boy, it's like transgender, but they're not a girl either."

"Oh... okay..." She paused for a moment, thinking for a moment, before turning to face Gerard, "so, it's like neutral, like gender neutral, or something?"

"Well, non-binary is sort of a broad term meaning not male or female, and there are lots of different things under that kind of umbrella, but yeah, sort of... I still haven't exactly gotten everything figured out, but, _yeah_... I just... it's complicated." Gerard blushed a little pulling their knees back up to their chest.

"It's fine, Gerard, whatever makes you happy, okay? I haven't actually heard of this before, but I'm old, I'm out of touch, I guess. So does this affect your sexuality in anyway?"

"No, I still like guys, I'm still with Frank, and he's super cool and nice about it... Frank's just, really, _really_ nice, and I like him a lot." Gerard blushed, because they knew they were being kind of pathetic about this, but Frank just mattered one hell of a lot, and there was little denying that.

"That's good, honey, I'm glad he's making you happy." She smiled, before turning to Mikey, who was blushing a little. "Are you having any such luck in your love life, Mikey?"

"Well..." Mikey's cheeks burned up, and he sat up a little, placing with the hem of his shirt, because fuck, okay, when it actually came down to it, he was just as nervous as Gerard. "There's this guy called Pete."

"Oh, for god's- not you too?" Mrs Way exclaimed, smiling a little as she shook her head firmly, "unbelievable, do tell me, I am a single woman, and I just can't see what's so great about dick."

And well, to say the least, that was absolutely the most awkward thing a mother has ever said to her children.

"I'm bisexual, not gay, though, so I still like girls, just guys too, and Pete's... Pete's... _nice._ "

"I want to meet him, you know, I'll be the judge of whether he's nice or not, you hear me, young man?" Mrs Way raised her eyebrows, grinning a little as Mikey considered throwing his head through the wall. "Any other bombshells you want to drop on me?"

"Oh... uhh, I may or may not have been stealing your make up for the past few months."

" _Gerard_!"

-


	28. And It Ends???

Gerard reckoned this had probably been the best past few days of their life, because not only had their mum been so accepting, but Frank had the house to himself due to some uncle going into hospital or something or other, and well, Gerard had found themself staying at Frank's for near enough two days now.

And yeah, it was good, and dear god, for the most part, they just _stared_ at Frank, because he really was beautiful, no matter what, and this thing they had between them was most definitely the best damn thing Gerard had ever known.

"Are you ever going to get the guts?" Frank spoke up out of nowhere, sat in bed, a cigarette held between two fingers, and with Gerard curled up into his side, their gaze fixated upon the younger, throughout the silence the two had sat in for a good ten minutes now.

"What?" Gerard asked, blushing a little, because goddamn, Frank could probably tell them that they smelt of milk, and they'd still blush. "What are you saying?" Gerard moved so they were sat beside Frank.

"I reckon it's pretty obvious..." Frank trailed off, linking their fingers, and finishing his cigarette, stubbing it out in the ashtray beside his bed. "But, sure, play innocent all you want, Way, but seriously, you're all _fuck me_ eyes, and I'm just wondering if you have the guts to follow through. Because you've been looking at me like you want my dick inside you for ages now, and it doesn't take much to figure out what that's doing to me."

Gerard blushed, harder than before, but that was to be expected. "I'm not... I... I just... it's hard not to stare at someone like you."

"Make excuses all you want, honey." A smirk twitched at the corners of Frank's lips as he met Gerard's gaze. "I can see it in your eyes, _come on_ , we have an empty house, and you do things to me, Gerard, you always have, and that _look_ in your eyes is the tip of the motherfucking iceberg."

"I'm nervous." Gerard admitted after a moment of silence, "sexual kind of stuff makes me nervous, I don't know what it is... I mean, I can be really into it, but really _nervous_ and I-"

"Just tell me if anything makes you uncomfortable, we can take it slow, and we don't even have to _fuck_ , like properly, if you don't want, but fuck, at least let me make out with you or I think I might die, or sprain my fucking _wrist_."

"Can you like... can you like be in control, like not like... but I don't really know what I'm doing..." Gerard admitted, continuing to blush, however, they didn't quite get the chance to utter out another confession, before they felt themself pinned down against the mattress with Frank straddling their hips, and fucking smirking like _hell_.

"You're so unbelievably _hot_ , and you don't even know, like seriously, if I was you, I'd come in my pants every time I looked in the mirror." And Gerard didn't get ample opportunity to even fathom responding, before Frank's lips were on theirs, grinding a little against Gerard as he did so, and oh _fuck_ , because Gerard was _so_ fucked, and this was most definitely the best part of their perfect few days by far.

"Quite good you're not me then, because that'd be quite problematic." Gerard added once Frank gave them the chance, Frank even stopping to just fucking giggle at them, before attaching his lips to Gerard's collarbones. "But, same, to be honest. You're... goddamn... you're... _fuck_ \- I-"

Frank pulled away, smirking like the devil himself. "You really don't let on as to how much of a slut you are, do you?" Frank ran his fingers over the marks he'd made on Gerard's collarbones and neck. "But I know, _I know_ , don't I?"

Gerard jumped as Frank fucking _groped_ him through his jeans, and oh _fuck_ , oh _fuck_ , and, Gerard seriously needed to make a mental note to pray to Jesus more often.

"Frank, I..." Gerard began, and the sixteen year old pulled away, meeting Gerard's gaze with a kind care and respect that Gerard reckoned they could never quite be more thankful of; Frank was just perfect, and they just worked, and Gerard was so incredibly fucking _lucky_ , because no matter what anyone said or thought, in their mind, Frank was the most important person in the whole damn world, _universe_ , even.

"Yeah?" Frank asked, sitting up a little more, so he could meet Gerard's gaze properly.

Gerard paused for a moment, their cheeks reddening as their breath hitched in their throat at just the notion of what could possibly happen. " _Fuck me_."

And Frank most certainly did not need any more encouragement, unzipping Gerard's jeans and pulling them down their legs with a little effort, but just thank god they hadn't worn the skin tight jeans this morning, because then they'd have to take a fucking twenty minute break just to get them off.

"How do you want me to fuck you?" Frank asked, spreading Gerard's legs apart, and pushing their knees up. "You want me to take it slow, do you want me to careful?"

Gerard paused, biting their lips as they hesitated for a moment. "No." And Frank fucking died right then and right there, like seriously, he had a literal heart attack, and Gerard attended his funeral like a week later- okay, maybe that's a slight over exaggeration, perhaps he just stopped breathing for like two seconds, but... it was a _long_ two seconds, maybe two point five. " _Fuck_ me."

"What happened to nervous?" Frank grinned, grabbing lube and a condom from his bedside table.

"Shut up, I can change my mind, you know, so be nice to me." Gerard smirked, causing Frank to raise his eyebrows, distracting Gerard as he slid a lubed finger into them. " _Fuck_ \- I- Any warning, _Jesus_?"

"My name's Frank, not Jesus, just saying." Frank grinned, sliding another finger into Gerard.

"God, you're a fucking _idiot_." Gerard groaned, pushing back onto Frank's fingers a little.

"No, you're wrong there, I'm _fucking_ an idiot."

-

Gerard hadn't stopped giggling like world's biggest fucking idiot since they'd came, and Frank was just glad that he'd came first, because there was no way this mess was going to help him.

"Like seriously, Gerard, are you okay?" Frank asked, wiping up the mess they'd made the best he could.

"I'm just really _happy_ and I feel really _good_ , and you're... you're so beautiful and everything is just so great, you know, like we have to fuck all the time, it's totally the law from now on."

"Yeah, I'm down with that." Frank grinned, lighting a cigarette, before laying back down beside the seventeen year old.

"I guessed you might be."

And Gerard reckoned the two just lay there smiling at one another for entirely too long, because if this wasn't love, then Gerard reckoned their heart might explode when he discovered what it really was, because whatever it was they had, they most definitely wouldn't change for the absolute fucking world.

-

Frank had this odd kind of nervous disposition that he usually did a pretty good job of hiding, however when it came to things that actually mattered, he was a mess, and he did an even shittier job of hiding that.

But he'd settled with the conclusion that there was just very little he could do to change or adjust this aspect of his personality, and even if it was slightly cowardly, he just chose to shake it off, because yes, he was Taylor Swift, and ignore it, because it wasn't like he _had_ to make important choices and be brave _ever_ , was it?

But come the other night with Gerard, something had changed.

Not in a bad way, easily the opposite, even, but there was so much more between them now, and Frank's could exhaust his heartbeat just by thinking about Gerard, but of course, now that there was really _something_ , there was a little voice inside Frank's head that hadn't shut up for the past few hours.

And well, the longer it continued on, the more Frank began to agree.

And it wasn't like the voice was wrong in the first place.

Because Frank could fuck Gerard, but he could never admit to anyone that they were even close enough to be friends.

Frank was _scared_ , but not scared enough to fuck someone, and Gerard had trusted him so much then, and Gerard had looked at him like he was someone really worth their time, someone really worth something, but all Frank was, was the boy who was just a little too scared.

Of course, Frank could change that, couldn't he?

But he was just a little too scared, as _always_.

However, if he did somehow manage to pluck the courage from somewhere, it would be stupidly easy, because there was one simple thing that was playing on his mind and holding him back, and that was the matter of his sexuality, and that was a simple matter to sort.

He didn't even have to come out with some sort of pretentiously homosexual speech, he could literally just hold Gerard's hand in public for once.

He reckoned Gerard might like that, and he reckoned that it might move him down one place on Lindsey Ballato's hit list, however Lindsey was kind of preoccupied with her own mess as of recent, and therefore, if this totally fucked up, then at least there'd be less of a chance that she'd be screaming down his throat.

And the more he thought about it, the more the idea began to appeal to him, and he just had to run over it with Gerard- in fact, he _didn't_ , he could just hold their hand, just kiss them, just like normal couples do, just _normally_ , and _fuck_ , Frank was such a mess.

And as he stood outside the art rooms, waiting for Gerard to collect something they'd left in there or whatever, Frank mentally prepared himself for becoming a hermit and never seeing anyone again, because that could never easily be a likely outcome of this stupid little decision of his.

But perhaps that was just something Frank was going to have to live with if he loved Gerard this much, and of course, there was no doubt that he did.

"Frankie?" He jumped a little, his eyes focusing back in upon Gerard stood before him, a concerned kind of look in their eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm f-fine... I just... something on my mind, but it's nothing, it's sorted now." Frank forced his lips into a smile and walked back down the corridor with Gerard by his side.

"You promise?" Gerard raised their eyebrows, just a little unconvinced by Frank's facade of sorts, but he was kind of used to it, because this was just Frank, and Gerard was just used to it.

"Yeah, I really do." Frank let out a sigh, his breath hitching a little as he let his gaze fall over Gerard's hand casually by their side, and his own, millimetres away, and just what would happen if he moved his hand just a little closer to Gerard’s, and they happened to turn around the next corner to see some renowned homophobic asshole.

God, Frank would-

Shove them into a wall, most likely.

Frank chuckled to himself, because realistically, he would and could protect them, and the only thing at risk of getting hurt here was his ego.

_Fuck_.

Frank thought of his ego, and then Gerard, and then Gerard's hand.

"Frank, you're being weird, tell me what's wrong." Gerard let out a sigh, following Frank's gaze back down to their hand.

Frank blushed a little, the two stopping to face one another, and god, Frank was so fucking _fucked_ and so fucking awkward, but so fucking in love with Gerard Way, and perhaps that would be it to kill him in the end, perhaps not, but whatever, it was too late to change that now.

"I want to hold your hand in public." Frank admitted, his voice little more than a whisper, but a whisper that screamed and echoed throughout Gerard's mind. "But I'm scared."

"I was scared about coming out to my mum but it still went fine." Gerard added in reassurance, reaching out their hand towards Frank's. "Just take my hand, it'll be okay."

"You're lucky I'm so in love with you that I'll do whatever you say without question." Frank shook his head, letting out a weird kind of laughing at himself sigh, before waving goodbye to his ego and reputation, as he took Gerard’s hand in his, and just like that the two turned around the corner, and well, Frank's suspicions had been correct.

" _Iero_ , are you a faggot now? Fuck, I did not see that one coming, did you?" Some dude with very little hair that Frank could quite remember the name of called out to them as they walked past. "Hey, Iero, _Frankie_ , don't ignore me."

"If you're going to be an asshole then I'm not going to give you a fucking minute of my time." Frank let out a sigh, Gerard giving Frank's hand a little comforting squeeze.

"I thought you liked asshole, _fucking it_ , do you fuck Gerard Way's asshole every night?"

Frank turned around at that point, having lost it completely. "Not _every night_ , no, they need some breaks, you know, but I'd say it's a regular occurrence."

And complete silence.

Complete silence as the two walked off down the corridor, until finally, a simple.

" _Faggots_!"

Because some people would never change, but that doesn't mean they have to matter, at all, _ever_.

-

"My mum totally wants to meet you now, though." Mikey let out a sigh, leaning a little into Pete's side; the two having taking the liberty of ditching after lunch, and going straight to the park around the block, instead, because priorities, and at the ripe of old ages of fifteen and sixteen, they were truly responsible teenagers.

Then again, the phrase 'responsible teenagers' seemed like an oxymoron itself.

"And what's wrong with that, huh?" Pete raised an eyebrow, not seeming to quite realise that he was _Pete_ , and Mikey was wishing that his mum didn't end up being severely mentally scarred of something, because that was a very possible outcome when Pete Wentz was just involved, let alone, the fucking focal point here.

"You, Pete, you're a hopeless idiot and we both know that." Mikey meant it in the nicest way possible, of course, but, regardless of just how nicely he meant it, he still _meant_ it.

"I'm not hopeless, and you're literally just bullying me at this point." Pete grumbled, but Mikey just continued to raise his eyebrows at him, and eventually Pete took the initiative to just shut the fuck up. "I'm glad it went well for you, though."

"Yeah, you should be, because otherwise we'd been in a really awkward and uncomfortable situation." Mikey let out a sigh, and pulled his cellphone out, taking just one glance at his messages, before swiftly putting it back away, just a little more mentally scarred than he had been when he'd taken it out of his pocket. "Gerard really needs to stop texting me accidentally instead of Frank."

"Maybe it isn't accidental." Pete waggled his eyebrows a little, smirking at Mikey.

"Pete, just what the _fuck_?" Mikey paused for a moment, totally unable to wrap his head around just what the absolute fuck Pete Wentz had just said. "They're related to me and _you're_ my boyfriend? Does anything you say make any sense ever?"

"I like confusing you, you look _hot_ when you're confused." And Pete was seriously in luck today, because with a confession like that, Pete only grew more confused.

"Aren't I always supposed to look hot?" Mikey asked after a moment, reckoning it was probably best to help Pete out here.

"Of course you do- I... I don't know what I'm saying- hey have you heard the blowjob story?"

Mikey paused for a moment, looking Pete up and down with disbelief. "The blowjob story." He repeated, praying that he'd somehow managed to mishear.

"Yes, the blowjob story." He repeated, a smirk twitching at the corners of his lips. "It's not from personal experience, don't worry, it's about Bill Beckett, do you know him?"

Mikey shook his head, looking Pete over one last time for any signs of joking in his voice, and unfortunately, Pete was fucking deadly serious, and Mikey reckoned he was just about stuck with the blowjob story now.

"Well, he goes to our school and he has this boyfriend and there was this very spectacular blowjob incident- I sit next to him in history, anyway, we started just talking about blowjobs or whatever, and there's this story about his boyfriend, apparently Bill was sucking his boyfriend's dick and they were like in bed or whatever, like under the covers, and his boyfriend's mum comes home, and in the room, and Bill's hidden under the blanket, but he doesn't stop sucking his boyfriend's dick, and his boyfriend is like fucked, and then that's the story of Bill Beckett maybe his boyfriend come while looking at his mum.

"Pete, I honestly think you have problems." Mikey confessed, having very little to say in response to the very emotional telling of the most awkward blowjob story Mikey reckoned he'd ever heard; of course, it was fucked up, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to tell Gerard later.

"My problem is that I'm so in love with you, Mikeyway, and your ass, your ass is so nice, please let me look at your ass."

"Pete, I-... you know what? _This_ right here is the reason why I don't want you to meet my mum: you'll probably tell her that she has nice boobs and suggest dating apps or something-"

"I'm far more classy than just outright telling her that her boobs look nice, come on, Mikey, I will tell her that her _top_ looks nice, don't be ridiculous." Pete continued, deadly serious, and Mikey's eyes continued to widen in something like horror. "Top is boobs, jeans is ass-"

"The fucking amount of times you've talked about my jeans-"

"Oh, but Mikey, I do _love_ your jeans."

"You are never going to meet my mum."

"Whatever you say, Mikeyway, but you can't pull this shit forever, because soon enough she's going to start to think that I'm not even real, so suck on that."

"Suck on what?"

"What the fuck do you think?"

"Pete, I am _not_ giving you a blowjob in a park."

-

Over the course of the past few days, Lindsey Ballato had very quickly become a chain-smoker, and she liked to say that it was something like Alicia's fault, but of course, it was nothing other than her own.

She hadn't seen nor heard from Jamia in a while, and she was beginning to wonder if it was just better that way: not out of spite or whatever, but with Jamia out of the way, she didn't have someone she could so easily pin the blame on, and that was seriously important, because Lindsey's arguments with her own mind were getting damn ridiculous at this point.

She was still yet to actually sort something out with Alicia and was paying the price for her cowardice, because Gerard need not have bothered with excuses; she knew that they were with Alicia, because Frank was probably spending time with Bert, his new motherfucking best friend, despite how fucking much Gerard was in love with him.

And really, Lindsey almost felt sorry for the wall, which had very quickly lost its best friend of Bert McCracken and that was most certainly a call for national tragedy.

She even considered slamming Bert back there just to ensure that the important friendship there didn't just die out, because, of course, Lindsey was a very considerate person.

This was probably the kind of thing she would have ended up talking to Jamia about, but that was before Jamia was the one to get her into this mess, and of course she didn't _blame_ Jamia, because that was just fucking ridiculous, and if there was anyone that should take more of the blame, it was very easily herself, but there was no way around the fact that if Jamia hadn't been there at the right time, it wouldn't have happened.

Well, the wrong place, the wrong time - perhaps it was simply a matter of that, however, Lindsey seriously doubted that Alicia would see it that way, and Lindsey didn't even deserve any kind of sympathy from anyone like this- fuck, she didn't even deserve to fix this relationship, just to convince Alicia to be in the same room as her again.

And god, she knew that this could happen when they'd first started dating, and she _knew_ just how fucked up their friendship could have easily become, but that was something she dismissed, because never did she think that it would fuck up like this, but Lindsey was wrong, and Lindsey didn't think she was wrong about most things.

It would be absolutely lovely just to talk to Gerard about this, and get it sorted with them, and then in turn Alicia, but although Gerard didn't want to admit it, even to themself, Gerard had sided with Alicia on this one, and in turn, so had Frank, and Bert, not that Bert was ever the kind of person that Lindsey Ballato would want sympathy from anyway.

Dear fucking god, she was just like Mikey Way now: one of Alicia Simmons' bitchy exes, holy fuck- _Mikey Way_.

If there was one person who knew this situation, it was Mikey Way.

And if there was one person who Lindsey Ballato would rather kill herself than talk to, it was Mikey Way.

But perhaps Alicia changed things, because after all, Alicia mattered one awful hell of a lot, didn't she?

And that was exactly how Lindsey Ballato found herself dialling Mikey Way's number for the first time in the motherfucking world.

" _Lindsey_?" The fact that even Mikey was surprised to hear from her said a lot.

"I need to talk to you about something involving Alicia- look long story short, I fucked up and I need your help." And dear god, Lindsey was sinking to the level of asking Mikey for help and she wanted to knife herself, but for Alicia Simmons, it seemed she'd even push her dignity aside.

"Yeah, Gerard mentioned it to me, just come over, Pete's about to leave anyway, and we can talk about this okay?" 

And then a muffled. "I'm about to leave?" Which she assumed was from the aforementioned Pete Wentz.

"Pete's being _Pete_ , look just come over, please Lindsey-" And Mikey was cut off as the call ended, and Lindsey was left stood a few streets away from the Way household with a kind of nervous feeling in her stomach that she didn't particularly care for.

But still, she went, because fuck everything, she'd already initiated conversation, if not odd and slightly just _off_ conversation with Mikey Way, and she was most definitely going to follow through at this point, because fuck Alicia, and fuck Mikey, and just fuck Lindsey's life.

-

The walk took her little more than six minutes, but it was either the longest or shortest six minutes of her life, as Lindsey couldn't quite yet decide whether this was either the best of worst decision she'd ever make.

And she pressed her finger down against the doorbell, the ring reverberating inside the house, she wondered if she was literally just about to ruin her life, because well, advice from Mikey Way, or whatever the fuck this was going to be, because Mikey Way really wasn't the advice kind of person.

In fact, Lindsey wouldn't be at all surprised if this wasn't simply nothing more than another shitty bet that was kind of staged and just ended up falling to shit in the end, but whatever it was, it was still that damn bet that had even gotten herself into this mess of a relationship with Alicia in the first place.

However, Lindsey didn't have nearly as long as she'd like to ponder the meanings of shitty bets and Mikey Way's existence, before the front door opened, revealing what she had expected to be Mikey Way, but in reality was perhaps the least likely person in the world.

"Come in."

" _Alicia_?"

"Lindsey, just come in, we need to talk, okay, I-" She was speaking far too slow, her breathing heavy and her gaze not quite meeting Lindsey's, complete with pink tinged cheeks and slightly parted, slightly dry and cracked lips.

"I just came here to see Mikey-"

"Lindsey, just- _look_ I-"

"I'm so sorry, _fuck_ , I'm so, _so_ sorry, please Alicia, I, forgive me, can we please - it was the wrong place at the wrong time and my head was in a mess, and it's still in a mess and I don't even know what to say except... except..."

Lindsey's mind fell back to her conversation with Gerard only a few days ago.

"Except..."

She finally looked up properly, forcing her gaze to meet Alicia's.

"Except... I love you."

And silence, heavy breathing and silence, because there was no questioning the fact that Alicia had really _not_ been expecting this at all, and Lindsey just couldn't quite figure out if that was for the better or the worse yet.

"Kissing Jamia's a funny way to show it."

"I'm scared, so scared, because I'm tough, I'm supposed to be tough, and you're beautiful, and I, I promise it won't happen again, I-"

"Oh shut the fuck up, Lindsey." Her eyes widened a little as she watched Alicia step forward, and then before what was happening, Alicia's lips were on hers, the front door slamming behind the two of them, and Alicia moving as the kissed deepened, so Lindsey was pinned against the front door with a resonating kind of thud.

And then, the kitchen window opened, Frank Iero's head popping out and peering out towards the two, before shouting, "you owe me one, Ballato."

-

End.


End file.
